Duncan Gillespie

School of Health and Related Research
The University of Sheffield
Regent Court, 30 Regent Street
Sheffield, S1 4DA

Office: Ground floor open plan

Tel: +44 (0)114 22 24310
Twitter: @GillespieDuncan

E-mail: duncan.gillespie@sheffield.ac.uk

ORCiD: 0000-0003-3450-5747

Career

2014 - Research Associate, Health Economics & Decision Science, University of Sheffield, UK.

2013 - 2014 Research Associate, Dept. Public Health & Policy, University of Liverpool, UK.

2011 - 2013 Postdoctoral Scholar, Dept. Biology, Stanford University, USA.

2006 - 2010 PhD Evolutionary Demography of Ageing, Dept. Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, UK.

Interim time spent assisting biological research projects, including studying house sparrows on Lundy Island and Red Colobus monkeys on Zanzibar.

2001 - 2004 Bsc (Hons), Biological Sciences (Zoology), University of Edinburgh, UK.

Research interests

I aim to support decision-making to improve population health and reduce inequalities. To do so, I focus on a mix of pure and applied research questions:

I'm interested in how population change results from changes in individuals' lives, and how inequalities in health and socio-economic situation are maintained during the process of population change. The fascinating part of this research is that it requires the combination of sociological theory, qualitative, epidemiological and demographic data, and new mathematical work to understand what mediates the link between individual and population change.

My applied research interests centre around how to enable policymakers to implement more effective and equitable policy. This requires predicting the likely fiscal and wider societal effects of policy, and thinking of new ways to present the outputs in terms of uncertainty-laden choices.

In my current work with the UK Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies, I am asking how to coordinate actions to reduce the harm from tobacco and alcohol use in the UK, where patterns of use are changing rapidly.

In the long run, I'm interested in developing this research in a global health context.

Keywords: Demography, ageing, public health modelling, epidemiology, inequality, health economics, population dynamics, R statistics.

Professional activities

Co-lead on internationalisation in HEDS, and member of ScHARR's internationalisation committee.

Thesis mentor.

Co-organiser, Sheffield community group for the R statistical software (past talks).

Committee member, NIHR School for Public Health Research - Researchers' network.

Key Publications (Google Scholar)

Extended List of Publications

Journal articles

Holmes J, Brown J, West R, Beard E, Brennan A, Drummond C, Gillespie D, Hickman M, Holmes J, Kaner E & Michie S (2016) Are recent attempts to quit smoking associated with reduced drinking in England? A cross-sectional population survey. BMC Public Health, 16:535. View this article in WRRO
Allen K, Gillespie DOS, Guzman-Castillo M, Diggle PJ, Capewell S & O'Flaherty M (2016) Future trends and inequalities in premature coronary deaths in England: Modelling study. International Journal of Cardiology, 203, 290-297.
McGill R, Anwar E, Orton L, Bromley H, Lloyd-Williams F, O’Flaherty M, Taylor-Robinson D, Guzman-Castillo M, Gillespie D, Moreira P, Allen K, Hyseni L, Calder N, Petticrew M, White M, Whitehead M & Capewell S (2015) Are interventions to promote healthy eating equally effective for all? Systematic review of socioeconomic inequalities in impact. BMC Public Health, 15(1).
Bandosz P, O'Flaherty M, Rutkowski M, Kypridemos C, Guzman-Castillo M, Gillespie DOS, Solnica B, Pencina MJ, Wyrzykowski B, Capewell S & Zdrojewski T (2015) A victory for statins or a defeat for diet policies? Cholesterol falls in Poland in the past decade: A modeling study. International Journal of Cardiology, 185, 313-319.
Guzman Castillo M, Gillespie DOS, Allen K, Bandosz P, Schmid V, Capewell S & O’Flaherty M (2014) Future Declines of Coronary Heart Disease Mortality in England and Wales Could Counter the Burden of Population Ageing. PLoS ONE, 9(6), e99482-e99482.
Gillespie DOS, Trotter MV & Tuljapurkar SD (2014) Divergence in Age Patterns of Mortality Change Drives International Divergence in Lifespan Inequality. Demography, 51(3), 1003-1017.
Gillespie DOS, Trotter MV, Krishna-Kumar S & Tuljapurkar SD (2014) BIRTH-ORDER DIFFERENCES CAN DRIVE NATURAL SELECTION ON AGING. Evolution, 68(3), 886-892.