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- Professor of Population Health
- Epidemiology & Public Health
- Institute of Epidemiology & Health
- Faculty of Pop Health Sciences
Professor Shelton is the Head of the Health and Social Surveys Research
Group. Her research is on health geography, health surveillance and the
outcomes that can be measured through large and complex health data
sets. She has particular interests in alcohol consumption and physical activity and occupational and older people's health and wellbeing.
She was the Founding Director of the BSc in Population Health http://www.ucl.ac.uk/bsc-population-health 2013-2019




In the alcohol research area I have worked on alcohol geographies examining how regional variations in drinking practises in England are associated with differences in attitude to alcohol consumption and to drunkenness. I presented this work at the House of Commons in 2010 and fed into evidence in the Health Committee Government’s Alcohol Strategy in 2012-13. I have also published BMA funded research showing the association between alcohol calories and obesity. Other work has included underreporting of alcohol consumption and the potential for overestimation of the health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption in conjunction with PhD students. ESRC funded work on alcohol consumption in older people has been motivated by the Royal College of Physicians recommendations to reduce the maximum unit limits for older people and by the increase in numbers of older people who are drinking above current limits. www.ucl.ac.uk/arig
In the area of physical activity I have looked at how a decline physical activity in older age is associated with retirement even after adjustment for health and obesity despite older working people citing a lack of time for exercise. Collaborative work has looked at how non screen sedentary behaviour is associated with low deprivation and TV watching is associated with higher deprivation. Other work has drawn together the relationship between physical activity and alcohol consumption and health. Innovative research with a Crucible funded PhD student looked at how developing physical active virtual field trips for school classrooms reduces sedentary time in the classroom and may aid learning and recall. https://virtualtravellerstudy.wordpress.com/
Under the auspices of CeLSIUS I have completed a beta test of the 2011 Census data linkage to the longitudinal study examining the geographical and employment factors which contribute to working beyond the age of 50 in 2011. This has formed part of the 2014-2017 RenEWL work programme in the ESRC Extended Working Lives Consortia of which I was a Co-Investigator. www.ucl.ac.uk/renewl Most recently I am a Co-Investigator on the Older People’s Health As An Asset For Economic And Social Improvement Of All: A Place-based Approach funded by Health Foundation.
Additionally I was involved as Co-I on a methodological project involving CeLSIUS: to develop a synthetic longitudinal data which is producing software using open government license in conjunction with ONS. http://calls.ac.uk/guides-resources/synthetic-ls-data/ The latter project has delivered a desktop synthetic longitudinal data set that can be used as a teaching, training and test data set to address the necessary challenges of restrictive data access policies to Census longitudinal data.
My research on nineteenth century infant and childhood mortality has enabled me to offer research led teaching in historical epidemiology to the undergraduate MBBS and MSc and the BSc Population Health. In 2019 I was awarded as Co-Investigator funding for Addressing Health: Morbidity, Mortality and Occupational Health in the Victorian and Edwardian Post Office (Wellcome Trust).
Module lead and lecturer IEHC0025 Epidemiological Transition
Lecturer IEHC0027 Social Determinants of Health
Lecturer IEHC0028 Research Methods in Population Health
Lecturer MBBS Year 1 and Year 2
Lecturer IEHC0052 Social Epidemiology: Dimensions of Inequality
Study Abroad Tutor BSc in Population Health
Affiliates Tutor BSc in Population Health
Senior Personal Tutor and Personal Tutor BSc in Population Health
Dissertation supervisor; postgraduate personal tutor
01-OCT-2018 | Professor of Population Health 80%FTE | Epidemiology and Public Health | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-OCT-2015 – 30-SEP-2018 | Reader in Population Health 80%FTE | Epidemiology and Public Health | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-OCT-2008 – 30-SEP-2015 | Senior Lecturer 80%FTE | Epidemiology and public health | UCL, United Kingdom |
AUG-2005 – SEP-2008 | Senior Research Fellow 60% | Epidemiology and public health | UCL, United Kingdom |
NOV-2002 – JUL-2005 | Research Fellow 60% | Epidemiology and public health | UCL, United Kingdom |
JUN-2002 – SEP-2002 | Research Fellow 40% | Geography | Leeds, United Kingdom |
JUL-2000 – OCT-2002 | Research Fellow 30% | MIRU | Leeds, United Kingdom |
OCT-1998 – APR-2000 | Research Fellow | CPS | LSHTM, United Kingdom |
SEP-1996 – AUG-1998 | Research Assistant | Geography | Liverpool, United Kingdom |
OCT-1993 – SEP-1995 | Research Assistant | Geography | Liverpool, United Kingdom |
2000 | Doctor of Philosophy | University of Liverpool | |
1998 | City & Guilds | City College | |
1992 | Postgraduate Diploma | University of Wales, Bangor | |
1991 | BSc (Hons) Open | University College London |