Dr Dianna Smith
MRC Fellow
School of Geography
Queen Mary, University of London
Mile End Road, London E1 4NS
Tel: 020 7882 2750
Fax: 020 7882 7479
Email: d.smith@qmul.ac.uk
Research interests:
My research interests are primarily in health geography, with a focus on social and spatial inequalities. My research utilises population simulation techniques to create estimates of health outcomes and behaviours (such as diabetes, obesity, smoking, diet and physical activity) within small areas. I am interested in investigating the potential impact of policy interventions on local-level health outcomes using simulated datasets.
I completed my ORS-funded PhD (‘Potential health implications of retail food access’) September 2007 at the School of Geography, University of Leeds. I have since worked as a postdoctoral research assistant in housing simulation at the School, and joined QMUL in February 2008 to work with Dr Steven Cummins on research relating to geographies of health.
I am currently an MRC Fellow, under the Population Health Scientist scheme. My project (' Simulation and analysis of the effect of environmental interventions on physical activity & obesity: international study') is exploring the use of spatial microsimulation to replicate longitudinal data and allow for policy analysis. The main focus of this work is to consider the utility of such models to assess the health impacts of environmental interventions such as improved cycle paths, access to green space or changes in housing density. This project makes use of two existing datasets in London and Australia.
Publications:
Articles in journals:
Riva, M., Smith, D.M., online 31/05/11. Generating small-area prevalence of common mental health disorders and alcohol consumption: validation of a spatial microsimulation method. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. doi: 10.1007/s00127-011-0376-6
Smith, D.M., Pearce, J.R., Harland, K. 2011. Can a deterministic spatial microsimulation model provide reliable small-area estimates of health behaviours? An example of smoking prevalence in New Zealand. Health & Place 17, 618-624. 
doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2011.01.001
Smith, D.M., Cummins, S., Taylor, M., Dawson, J., Marshall, D., Sparks, L., Anderson, A.S., 2010. Neighbourhood food environment and area deprivation: spatial accessibility to grocery stores selling fresh fruit and vegetables in urban and rural settings. International Journal of Epidemiology 39, 277-284. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyp221
Cummins, S., Smith, D.M., Aitken, Z., Dawson, J., Marshall, D., Sparks, L., Anderson, A.S., 2010. Neighbourhood deprivation and the price and availability of fruit and vegetables in Scotland. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics 23, 494-501. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-277X.2010.01071.x
Cummins, S., Smith, D.M., Taylor, M., Dawson, J., Marshall, D., Sparks, L., Anderson, A.S., 2009. Variations in fresh fruit and vegetable quality by store type, urban-rural setting and neighbourhood deprivation in Scotland. Public Health Nutrition 12, 2044-2050.
Smith, D.M., Clarke, G.P., Harland, K., 2009. Improving the synthetic data generation process in spatial microsimulation models. Environment and Planning A 41, 1251 - 1268. doi:10.1068/a4147
Smith, D.M., Cummins, S., 2009. Obese Cities: How our environment shapes overweight. Geography Compass 3, 518-535. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2008.00198.x
Procter, K.L., Smith, D.M., 2008. Size matters: the role of scale in geographies of health. Area 40, 303-305. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4762.2008.00833.x
Smith, D.M., Clarke, G.P., Ransley, J., Cade, J., 2005. Food access and health: A microsimulation framework for analysis. Studies in Regional Science 35, 909-927.
Book chapters:
Smith, D.M. forthcoming. Simulating Spatial Health Inequalities, in: See, L. (Ed.), Agent Based Models for Geographic Systems: Principles, Concepts and Applications. Springer.
Smith, D.M., Cummins, S., forthcoming. Food Deserts, in: Cawley, J. (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Obesity. Oxford University Press, pp. 452-462.
Smith, D.M., Edwards, K., Clarke, G.P., Harland, K., 2010. Measuring obesogenic environments – representing place in studies of obesity in: Pearce, J., Witten, K. (Eds.), Geographies of Obesity: Environmental Understandings of the Obesity Epidemic. Ashgate, pp. 277-296