About the project
How do we make the food environment more equitable through policy interventions? The aim is to understand barriers to healthy food access in one locality through quantitative and qualitative research methods, working in communities, to identify policy solutions in collaboration with local government to address feasibility of proposed changes.
This project provides an opportunity for the candidate to shape research methods in collaboration with supervisors from academic and local authority organisations, which supports implementation of findings where appropriate. There are observed inequalities in access to healthy food, which can result in poorer quality diet and health outcomes in populations.
This research will aim to answer a series of aligned questions which are currently under-researched.
This includes questions such as:
- How do people travel to buy food?
- Does mode of travel influence diet quality?
- Is there a relationship between public transport links and diet quality in deprived areas?
- Does home food and grocery delivery impact on diet quality?
- What are barriers to food aid?
The research will take the form of a three paper PhD, including a systematic review, mixed methods data collection and potentially a feasibility study of one proposed intervention to improve food access in a deprived community. There is scope to shift the focus towards the candidate’s own interests in the theme of food access and diet quality.
A notable benefit of the project is the alignment with local government and policy focus, the candidate will have a greater exposure to and understanding of policy decisions in local government in addition to gaining methodological experience in the data collection. Diet quality is a key topic which influences population health, and while much has been studied about food purchasing and access, there is limited research on the role of transportation. The issues of distance and time need to be better understood.
