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Lalloo D, Demou E, Pahl N, Macdonald EB. Research and teaching activity in UK occupational physicians. Occup Med (Lond) 2020; 70:64-67. [PMID: 31644805 PMCID: PMC7101243 DOI: 10.1093/occmed/kqz132] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND For all doctors, including occupational physicians (OPs), research and teaching are considered core requirements of medical education and continuing professional development. Academic skills are also vital to evidence-based practice and advancement of occupational health (OH) as a specialty. In recent years, attention has focussed on the declining UK OH academic base and the research- practice gap, and increased practitioner participation in research is encouraged. AIMS To establish a baseline of research and teaching activity among UK OPs, identify related barriers and inform strategies to overcome them. METHODS An online survey including specific career profile questions derived from consensus following expert panel discussions. It formed part of a larger Delphi study on UK OH research priorities. RESULTS We received 213 responses, about 18% of 1207 practising UK OPs. Of these, 162 (76%) undertook research at some career-point, of which 44 (27%) were currently research-active. Similarly, 154 (72%) undertook teaching at some career-point, of which 99 (64%) were currently teaching-active. Of those who had never undertaken research (n = 51) or teaching (n = 59), 40 and 42% were interested in doing so, respectively. Key barriers were lack of time and opportunity, the former particularly for respondents practising in industry, where 'commercial' demands take priority, rather than healthcare. CONCLUSIONS This study establishes a benchmark of academic activity among UK OPs and identifies related barriers. These 'target' barriers can shape research funding priorities and education to increase participation and develop the UK OH academic base.
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Affiliation(s)
- D Lalloo
- Healthy Working Lives Group, Institute of Health and Wellbeing, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - E Demou
- MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Institute of Health and Wellbeing, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | - N Pahl
- Society of Occupational Medicine, Little Britain, London, UK
| | - E B Macdonald
- Healthy Working Lives Group, Institute of Health and Wellbeing, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
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Bekker MPM, Mays N, Kees Helderman J, Petticrew M, Jansen MWJ, Knai C, Ruwaard D. Comparative institutional analysis for public health: governing voluntary collaborative agreements for public health in England and the Netherlands. Eur J Public Health 2019; 28:19-25. [PMID: 30383254 PMCID: PMC6209813 DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/cky158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Democratic institutions and state-society relations shape governance arrangements and expectations between public and private stakeholders about public health impact. We illustrate this with a comparison between the English Public Health Responsibility Deal (RD) and the Dutch 'All About Health…' (AaH) programme. As manifestations of a Whole-of-Society approach, in which governments, civil society and business take responsibility for the co-production of economic utility and good health, these programmes are two recent collaborative platforms based on voluntary agreements to improve public health. Using a 'most similar cases' design, we conducted a comparative secondary analysis of data from the evaluations of the two programmes. The underlying rationale of both programmes was that voluntary agreements would be better suited than regulation to encourage business and civil society to take more responsibility for improving health. Differences between the two included: expectations of an enforcing versus facilitative role for government; hierarchical versus horizontal coordination; big business versus civil society participants; top-down versus bottom-up formulation of voluntary pledges and progress monitoring for accountability versus for learning and adaptation. Despite the attempt in both programmes to base voluntary commitments on trust, the English 'shadow of hierarchy' and adversarial state-society relationships conditioned non-governmental parties to see the pledges as controlling, quasi-contractual agreements that were only partially lived up to. The Dutch consensual political tradition enabled a civil society-based understanding and gradual acceptance of the pledges as the internalization by partner organizations of public health values within their operations. We conclude that there are institutional limitations to the implementation of generic trust-building and learning-based models of change 'Whole-of-Society' approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marleen P M Bekker
- Department of Health Services Research, Care and Public Health Research Institute, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (CAPHRI), Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.,Chair group Health and Society, Center for Space, Place and Society, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Nicholas Mays
- Policy Innovation Research Unit, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | - Jan Kees Helderman
- Department of Public Administration, Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Mark Petticrew
- Policy Innovation Research Unit, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | - Maria W J Jansen
- Department of Health Services Research, Care and Public Health Research Institute, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (CAPHRI), Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Cecile Knai
- Policy Innovation Research Unit, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | - Dirk Ruwaard
- Department of Health Services Research, Care and Public Health Research Institute, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (CAPHRI), Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
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Knai C, Petticrew M, Douglas N, Durand MA, Eastmure E, Nolte E, Mays N. The Public Health Responsibility Deal: Using a Systems-Level Analysis to Understand the Lack of Impact on Alcohol, Food, Physical Activity, and Workplace Health Sub-Systems. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2018; 15:ijerph15122895. [PMID: 30562999 PMCID: PMC6313377 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph15122895] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2018] [Revised: 12/03/2018] [Accepted: 12/05/2018] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The extent to which government should partner with business interests such as the alcohol, food, and other industries in order to improve public health is a subject of ongoing debate. A common approach involves developing voluntary agreements with industry or allowing them to self-regulate. In England, the most recent example of this was the Public Health Responsibility Deal (RD), a public⁻private partnership launched in 2011 under the then Conservative-led coalition government. The RD was organised around a series of voluntary agreements that aim to bring together government, academic experts, and commercial, public sector and voluntary organisations to commit to pledges to undertake actions of public health benefit. This paper brings together the main findings and implications of the evaluation of the RD using a systems approach. We analysed the functioning of the RD exploring the causal pathways involved and how they helped or hindered the RD; the structures and processes; feedback loops and how they might have constrained or potentiated the effects of the RD; and how resilient the wider systems were to change (i.e., the alcohol, food, and other systems interacted with). Both the production and uptake of pledges by RD partners were largely driven by the interests of partners themselves, enabling these wider systems to resist change. This analysis demonstrates how and why the RD did not meet its objectives. The findings have lessons for the development of effective alcohol, food and other policies, for defining the role of unhealthy commodity industries, and for understanding the limits of industry self-regulation as a public health measure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cécile Knai
- Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15⁻17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UK.
| | - Mark Petticrew
- Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15⁻17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UK.
| | - Nick Douglas
- Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15⁻17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UK.
| | - Mary Alison Durand
- Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15⁻17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UK.
| | - Elizabeth Eastmure
- Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15⁻17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UK.
| | - Ellen Nolte
- Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15⁻17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UK.
| | - Nicholas Mays
- Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15⁻17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UK.
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Knai C, Petticrew M, Scott C, Durand MA, Eastmure E, James L, Mehrotra A, Mays N. Getting England to be more physically active: are the Public Health Responsibility Deal's physical activity pledges the answer? Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 2015; 12:107. [PMID: 26384783 PMCID: PMC4574469 DOI: 10.1186/s12966-015-0264-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2015] [Accepted: 08/13/2015] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The Public Health Responsibility Deal (RD) in England is a public-private partnership involving voluntary pledges between government, industry, and other organisations to improve public health by addressing alcohol, food, health at work, and physical activity. This paper analyses the RD physical activity (PA) pledges in terms of the evidence of their potential effectiveness, and the likelihood that they have motivated actions among organisations that would not otherwise have taken place. METHODS We systematically reviewed evidence of the effectiveness of interventions proposed in four PA pledges of the RD, namely, those on physical activity in the community; physical activity guidelines; active travel; and physical activity in the workplace. We then analysed publically available data on RD signatory organisations' plans and progress towards achieving the physical activity pledges, and assessed the extent to which activities among organisations could be attributed to the RD. RESULTS Where combined with environmental approaches, interventions such as mass media campaigns to communicate the benefits of physical activity, active travel in children and adults, and workplace-related interventions could in principle be effective, if fully implemented. However, most activities proposed by each PA pledge involved providing information or enabling choice, which has limited effectiveness. Moreover, it was difficult to establish the extent of implementation of pledges within organisations, given that progress reports were mostly unavailable, and, where provided, it was difficult to ascertain their relevance to the RD pledges. Finally, 15 % of interventions listed in organisations' delivery plans were judged to be the result of participation in the RD, meaning that most actions taken by organisations were likely already under way, regardless of the RD. CONCLUSIONS Irrespective of the nature of a public health policy to encourage physical activity, targets need to be evidence-based, well-defined, measurable and encourage organisations to go beyond business as usual. RD physical activity targets do not adequately fulfill these criteria.
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Affiliation(s)
- C Knai
- Policy Innovation Research Unit, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London, WC1H 9SH, UK.
| | - M Petticrew
- Policy Innovation Research Unit, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London, WC1H 9SH, UK.
| | - C Scott
- Policy Innovation Research Unit, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London, WC1H 9SH, UK.
| | - M A Durand
- Policy Innovation Research Unit, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London, WC1H 9SH, UK.
| | - E Eastmure
- Policy Innovation Research Unit, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London, WC1H 9SH, UK.
| | - L James
- Policy Innovation Research Unit, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London, WC1H 9SH, UK.
| | - A Mehrotra
- South Lewisham Practice, 50 Connisborough Crescent, London, SE6 2SP, UK.
| | - N Mays
- Policy Innovation Research Unit, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London, WC1H 9SH, UK.
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