Professor Catherine Law
Professor Catherine Law is Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology and Director of the Centre for Policy Research
Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the UCL Institute of Child Health.
Catherine graduated in medicine from University of London in 1979. She trained in paediatrics and academic child health in London, gaining her doctorate at the Institute of Child Health, and proceeding to postdoctoral studies in maternal and child health at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, USA. After returning to the UK in 1987, she held an academic post at the Medical Research Council Environmental Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton until 2003. She is now Reader in Children's Health in the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Child Health, London and an honorary consultant (in public health medicine) in Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Trust.
Catherine's research interests are in paediatric epidemiology and child public health, particularly the development of cardiovascular risk factors in children, physical growth, and inequalities in child health. Her current research relates to obesity in children, particularly determining the contribution of fetal and early childhood growth to lifetime health, how public policy might influence current trends in childhood obesity, and how national and local interventions to prevent childhood obesity might be developed and evaluated, particularly in relation to disadvantaged groups.
Catherine has an active interest in the use and development of research for public policy. She was the scientific secretary of the Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health (1997-8), commissioned by the current UK Government to inform its health policy and more recently co-ordinated the collation of the evidence base for the National Service Framework for Children and Young People (Department of Health, England). She continues to work with the Department of Health and other policymaking organisations at the interface of research and policy. She is also Chair of the Public Health Interventions Advisory Committee of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/research/personal/index?upi=CLAWX59
Involvement in the Public Health Research Consortium
2011-2019
- Member of the PHRC Project Management Group, 2011-
- Member of the PHRC Consortium Management Group, 2011-
- Principal Investigator: In what circumstances can parental employment improve child health?
- Principal Investigator: How does educational achievement impact on health and health inequalities? An analysis of trajectories to inform policy options and development
- Co-Investigator: Multiple risk behaviours among parents with dependent children
- Co-Investigator: Health behaviours and health behaviour change among adults in England
- Co-Investigator: Evaluating the impacts of policies on child health inequalities: How best can we exploit the predictive value of the integrated pre-school checks
2005-2011
- Member of the PHRC Project Management Group, 2005-2011
- Member of the PHRC Consortium Management Group, 2005-2011
- Principal Investigator: Will policies for the early years reduce inequalities in health? A synthesis of evidence to inform policy development, using the examples of unintentional injury and childcare