L O'Dwyer | Flinders University of South Australia (original) (raw)

Papers by L O'Dwyer

Research paper thumbnail of What's geography got to do with health? Medical geography's contribution to epidemiology and health

Australasian epidemiologist, 2000

Health/medical geography is a discipline which has much to offer epidemiology. After a brief over... more Health/medical geography is a discipline which has much to offer epidemiology. After a brief overview of the aims and evolution of medical geography, the common ground and complementary differences between these allied fields are discussed. Attention is given to the status of medical geography in Australia and New Zealand and a call is made for greater multidisciplinary collaboration between geography and the health sciences. (author abstract)

Research paper thumbnail of Home Ownership and Unemployment: Does the Oswald Thesis Hold for Australian Regions?

Research paper thumbnail of Potential meets reality: GIS and public health research in Australia

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 1998

Research paper thumbnail of People and places: urban location, social capital and health

People's health status is strongly related to their socio-economic status. Less well-off peop... more People's health status is strongly related to their socio-economic status. Less well-off people are more likely to have a shorter life expectancy and more illnesses than their richer counterparts. There is also a growing body of research suggesting a relationship between ...

Research paper thumbnail of What’s in a Dog’s Breakfast? Considering the Social, Veterinary and Environmental Implications of Feeding Food Scraps to Pets Using Three Australian Surveys

Sustainability, 2015

Diverting food waste away from landfills is one way to minimise its serious environmental impact.... more Diverting food waste away from landfills is one way to minimise its serious environmental impact. Given that over a third of Australian households have at least one pet, the feeding of food waste to dogs constitutes one potentially significant waste diversion path. However, the proportion of dog owners that feed food waste to their pets is unknown. Moreover, there has been no investigation into any relationship between practices of feeding scraps to pets and the animals' body condition, living arrangements (inside or outside) and exercise regime. To provide some insight, this paper presents findings from three surveys across two Australian studies. The first reports both pet and dog-specific findings from two surveys within a wider food waste research project (n = 1017), establishing that 28% of respondents fed leftovers to pets as a main food waste minimization strategy, yet in only 5% of households did this constitute more than half of the household's food scraps. This modest diversion of

Research paper thumbnail of Housing Inheritance and the Private Rental Sector in Australia

Housing Studies, 1999

A BSTRACT The im pact of housing inheritance on housing provision has been overlooked in previous... more A BSTRACT The im pact of housing inheritance on housing provision has been overlooked in previous w ork, w hich has conce ntrated on quantifying housing wealth and ascertaining w hether or not it results in or contributes to social strati® cation. H owever, A ustralian research show s that w hile housing inheritance m ay only have m odest effects on the wealth of bene ® ciaries, m ost of w hom are m iddle-aged hom e ow ne rs them selves, there are im portant im plications for the A ustralian private rental sector. M any bene ® ciaries let their inherited dwellings w hile those dwellings that are sold are often attractive to investors because of their often low capital value and central city location. In contrast to m ost investors in private renta l housing, bene ® ciaries w ho becom e land lords are not alw ays m otivated by ® nancial gain. The results sug gest that housing inheritance m ay offer an opportune ne w source of private rental housing, although like the sector itself, the sup ply of dwellings from this source is not directly am ena ble to governm ent control.

Research paper thumbnail of Do area-based interventions to reduce health inequalities work? A systematic review of evidence

Critical Public Health, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Potential meets reality: GIS and public health research in Australia

Australian and New Zealand journal of …, 2008

Research paper thumbnail of People and places: urban location, social capital and health

People's health status is strongly related to their socio-economic status. Less well-off peop... more People's health status is strongly related to their socio-economic status. Less well-off people are more likely to have a shorter life expectancy and more illnesses than their richer counterparts. There is also a growing body of research suggesting a relationship between ...

Research paper thumbnail of Home ownership and unemployment: Does the oswald thesis hold for australian regions

Research paper thumbnail of Home Ownership and Unemployment: Does the Oswald Thesis Hold for Australian Regions?

Research paper thumbnail of Are baby-boomers healthy enough to keep working? Health as a mediator of extended labour force participation

Research paper thumbnail of Do area-based interventions to reduce health inequalities work? A systematic review of evidence

Critical Public Health, 2007

Reducing health inequalities by focusing health promotion efforts on specific areas rather than i... more Reducing health inequalities by focusing health promotion efforts on specific areas rather than individuals is based on the premise that changing something about a place may improve health outcomes for people living in that place. This paper examines the evidence base regarding the efficacy of area-based interventions by reviewing evaluations of interventions aimed at reducing inequities between groups and which are based on changing a specific place. Only 24 papers met our review criteria. The overall success of area-based interventions was difficult to gauge due to the use of multiple strategies, inadequate evaluation reports, variation in the size or type of area, insufficient funding for implementation, policy changes over the course of the program and lack of long-term evaluations. However, the value of changing a place, area or location in some way was demonstrated in several studies which were adequately funded and evaluated. Thus, there is some evidence that area-based interventions reduce inequities, but more well-designed and well-timed evaluations of outcomes are necessary to draw any firmer conclusions. Explicit attention must also be given to geographical concepts associated with an area-based approach, such as area, scale, location and locality, neighbourhood, community and place.

Research paper thumbnail of What's geography got to do with health? Medical geography's contribution to epidemiology and health

Australasian epidemiologist, 2000

Health/medical geography is a discipline which has much to offer epidemiology. After a brief over... more Health/medical geography is a discipline which has much to offer epidemiology. After a brief overview of the aims and evolution of medical geography, the common ground and complementary differences between these allied fields are discussed. Attention is given to the status of medical geography in Australia and New Zealand and a call is made for greater multidisciplinary collaboration between geography and the health sciences. (author abstract)

Research paper thumbnail of Home Ownership and Unemployment: Does the Oswald Thesis Hold for Australian Regions?

Research paper thumbnail of Potential meets reality: GIS and public health research in Australia

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 1998

Research paper thumbnail of People and places: urban location, social capital and health

People's health status is strongly related to their socio-economic status. Less well-off peop... more People's health status is strongly related to their socio-economic status. Less well-off people are more likely to have a shorter life expectancy and more illnesses than their richer counterparts. There is also a growing body of research suggesting a relationship between ...

Research paper thumbnail of What’s in a Dog’s Breakfast? Considering the Social, Veterinary and Environmental Implications of Feeding Food Scraps to Pets Using Three Australian Surveys

Sustainability, 2015

Diverting food waste away from landfills is one way to minimise its serious environmental impact.... more Diverting food waste away from landfills is one way to minimise its serious environmental impact. Given that over a third of Australian households have at least one pet, the feeding of food waste to dogs constitutes one potentially significant waste diversion path. However, the proportion of dog owners that feed food waste to their pets is unknown. Moreover, there has been no investigation into any relationship between practices of feeding scraps to pets and the animals' body condition, living arrangements (inside or outside) and exercise regime. To provide some insight, this paper presents findings from three surveys across two Australian studies. The first reports both pet and dog-specific findings from two surveys within a wider food waste research project (n = 1017), establishing that 28% of respondents fed leftovers to pets as a main food waste minimization strategy, yet in only 5% of households did this constitute more than half of the household's food scraps. This modest diversion of

Research paper thumbnail of Housing Inheritance and the Private Rental Sector in Australia

Housing Studies, 1999

A BSTRACT The im pact of housing inheritance on housing provision has been overlooked in previous... more A BSTRACT The im pact of housing inheritance on housing provision has been overlooked in previous w ork, w hich has conce ntrated on quantifying housing wealth and ascertaining w hether or not it results in or contributes to social strati® cation. H owever, A ustralian research show s that w hile housing inheritance m ay only have m odest effects on the wealth of bene ® ciaries, m ost of w hom are m iddle-aged hom e ow ne rs them selves, there are im portant im plications for the A ustralian private rental sector. M any bene ® ciaries let their inherited dwellings w hile those dwellings that are sold are often attractive to investors because of their often low capital value and central city location. In contrast to m ost investors in private renta l housing, bene ® ciaries w ho becom e land lords are not alw ays m otivated by ® nancial gain. The results sug gest that housing inheritance m ay offer an opportune ne w source of private rental housing, although like the sector itself, the sup ply of dwellings from this source is not directly am ena ble to governm ent control.

Research paper thumbnail of Do area-based interventions to reduce health inequalities work? A systematic review of evidence

Critical Public Health, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Potential meets reality: GIS and public health research in Australia

Australian and New Zealand journal of …, 2008

Research paper thumbnail of People and places: urban location, social capital and health

People's health status is strongly related to their socio-economic status. Less well-off peop... more People's health status is strongly related to their socio-economic status. Less well-off people are more likely to have a shorter life expectancy and more illnesses than their richer counterparts. There is also a growing body of research suggesting a relationship between ...

Research paper thumbnail of Home ownership and unemployment: Does the oswald thesis hold for australian regions

Research paper thumbnail of Home Ownership and Unemployment: Does the Oswald Thesis Hold for Australian Regions?

Research paper thumbnail of Are baby-boomers healthy enough to keep working? Health as a mediator of extended labour force participation

Research paper thumbnail of Do area-based interventions to reduce health inequalities work? A systematic review of evidence

Critical Public Health, 2007

Reducing health inequalities by focusing health promotion efforts on specific areas rather than i... more Reducing health inequalities by focusing health promotion efforts on specific areas rather than individuals is based on the premise that changing something about a place may improve health outcomes for people living in that place. This paper examines the evidence base regarding the efficacy of area-based interventions by reviewing evaluations of interventions aimed at reducing inequities between groups and which are based on changing a specific place. Only 24 papers met our review criteria. The overall success of area-based interventions was difficult to gauge due to the use of multiple strategies, inadequate evaluation reports, variation in the size or type of area, insufficient funding for implementation, policy changes over the course of the program and lack of long-term evaluations. However, the value of changing a place, area or location in some way was demonstrated in several studies which were adequately funded and evaluated. Thus, there is some evidence that area-based interventions reduce inequities, but more well-designed and well-timed evaluations of outcomes are necessary to draw any firmer conclusions. Explicit attention must also be given to geographical concepts associated with an area-based approach, such as area, scale, location and locality, neighbourhood, community and place.