Publication year: 2011
Source: Social Science & Medicine, In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 2 August 2011
Richard, Mitchell , Claire, Dujardin , Frank, Popham , Maria-Isabel, Farfan Portet , Isabelle, Thomas , …
In this paper, we develop and test a method for examining the influence of national level contextual influences on population health. Acknowledging calls for the use of experimental study designs to explore contextual influences on health, we develop a study design in which sets of local areas from Britain and Belgium became akin to two ‘treatment’ groups; one exposed to British society and culture and the other exposed to Belgian society and culture. The areas are matched on the basis of showing very strong similarities in economic, demographic and historical characteristics. Data describing these characteristics are obtained from national census…