The Epidemiology and Public Health Group examines upstream and downstream determinants of the health of the public i.e. those acting at the level of society and those relating to individuals. Strengths of the group are in cardiovascular disease and diabetes epidemiology, the social determinants of public health including physical health and mental health, administrative data research, rare diseases, the development and translation of public health interventions and increasingly in complex methodologies such as Causal Inference and Agent Based Modelling.

The group has a wide network of international collaborations. Our researchers are members of the management committees of large consortia for the study of cardiovascular disease in large cohorts across Europe (“MORGAM”). The PRIME Study, a prospective study of risk factors for cardiovascular disease in middle-aged men has been active since 1980. An underlying theme which has emerged strongly in the recent years has been research on ageing with our own new large cohort study, the Northern Ireland Cohort for the Longitudinal Study of Ageing (NICOLA) funded by OFMDFM, UKCRC, ESRC and Atlantic Philanthropies; and a Europe wide intervention addressing physical activity and sedentary behaviour in older adults ("SITLESS"). Our researchers also contribute to CPIT III, a multi-centre phase III randomised controlled trial, which will compare smoking cessation rates in late pregnancy and 6 months post-partum between women offered routine NHS stop smoking support and those offered the same NHS support plus additional financial incentives.

The Centre is a member of HEPA Europe, a European network of experts on physical activity for health, which works closely with the European section of the World Health Organisation.

Methodological research in the group has been strengthened through the recent award by the ESRC of the Administrative Data Research Centre for Northern Ireland – a collaboration of both Universities and the Northern Ireland Statistics Research Agency.