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Dr Penny Cook

Sexual Health

Reader in Public Health Epidemiology

e-mail Tel No: 0151 231 4517

My current role is to lead research in two areas, sexual health and alcohol harm.

The sexual health team holds the North West regional databases of treatment and care of HIV positive individuals, new diagnoses of HIV, new AIDS diagnoses and reports of deaths of HIV positive individuals. We have used this dataset to demonstrate the health implications for the very poorest people living with HIV in the North West. The data are also used to monitor trends, for example in levels of treatment, routes of infection, ethnicity and gender of those infected. We publish twice yearly reports, the data from which are used to inform funding of HIV treatment and care. In addition, a subset of the data is the basis of the national statistics for HIV in the North West. Following a successful pilot scheme to enhance the data collected from genito-urinary clinics, we now carry out surveillance of sexually transmitted infections in Merseyside and Cheshire. We are currently carrying out a large survey in schools throughout the North West in order to evaluate the impact of a pilot sex and relationships education programme, on behalf of Government Office North West. Previous sexual health research has included systematic reviews of evidence for the National Centre for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on interventions to prevent transmission of sexually transmitted infections and HIV, as well as research on health professionals' perceptions of NICE's sexual health intervention guidance. The team has also carried out a consultation on the establishment of a proposed managed zone for sex trade work in Liverpool and an investigation of the outbreak of syphilis in Greater Manchester, as well as many needs assessments and service evaluations. I have an advisory role on the Sexual Health and HIV Commissioners Group for England.

Alcohol-related research is carried out across the whole of the Centre for Public Health, and it is my role to have an overview of all these activities, as well as directly manage the alcohol research team. The team carries out original research on a variety of different populations including the general population (and specific groups within it), workplaces, and service providers. We are currently studying the relationships between parents' perceptions of children's drinking and children's actual drinking behaviour, using parents and children recruited at parent/pupil/teacher meetings in schools on the Wirral. We have recently carried out the largest survey of its kind, The Big Drink Debate, to investigate the public's attitude to alcohol, which attracted the opinions of nearly 30,000 people. Other recent work has examined levels of alcohol consumption; impacts of alcohol on individuals, the workplace and communities; motivations for alcohol consumption; awareness of alcohol information; levels of knowledge surrounding alcohol; and impacts of interventions (such as the licensing legislation, social marketing campaigns). The team also synthesises and compiles local alcohol-related data from different sources (such as crime, health or education services) and production of quarterly reports to inform policymakers and stakeholders of progress towards, for example, local area agreement targets. Intelligence from international, national and regional sources are brought together to provide policymakers with the latest evidence on policy, practice and interventions. Evidence is synthesised and presented through a range of accessible sources such as one-off reports, presentations, fact sheets and the internet.

My other research includes the public health benefits of urban parks, the epidemiology of tuberculosis, smoking behaviour in school children and hepatitis B and C infection in injecting drug users. I teach on a range of topics including, alcohol harm, sexual health, health surveillance and epidemiology, blood borne infections, research design and quantitative methods at undergraduate and postgraduate level. I have co-aurhored an undergraduate textbook on statistics, published in 2000.