Elucidating environmental links between socioeconomic position and heart disease

While there is consensus that deprivation increases one's risk of heart disease, considerable debate remains as to why. This research has the potential to make an important contribution to our understanding of how environment is part of the pathway. This programme of work brings together unique datasets on deprivation and environmental exposures, specifically air pollution, that will allow detailed investigation of how the environment links deprivation and heart disease within subjects of the Whitehall II longitudinal cohort of British civil servants living in the Greater London area.Using quantitative methods, Dr. Tonne will investigate socioeconomic inequalities in exposure to air pollution and why more deprived individuals may be at greater risk of heart disease compared to less deprived individuals for a given level of exposure. Dr. Tonne's research will also identify which aspects of the physical environment are related to physical activity levels, and whether the physical environment plays a role in the observed socioeconomic gradient in physical activity levels.