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Helena Nogueira

Orcid profile

Ciência Vitae profile

Research Interests
Social determinants of health
Sociomaterial deprivation
Healthy places
Obesogenic environments

Helena Nogueira has a first degree in nutrition (1987) and another in geography (1996). She earned her PhD in 2007 at the University of Coimbra, where she has been teaching and researching since 1999. She is interested in health geography and her research focuses on social determinants of health, health behaviours, neighbourhood effects on health, health inequalities, obesogenic environments and statistical methodologies applied to this issues, with a greater emphasis on issues related with sociomaterial deprivation, local social organization (social support and cohesion) and availability of local opportunities to led a healthy daily life (e.g., urban green areas and its impacts on physical activity and obesity, mental stress, social interaction). She also has interest on relations between climate and health. As a teacher, she combines aspects of health geography, urban planning and statistics. She has two rewarded investigations; in 2006, she was co-author of a research about the maternal-child care in an immigrant population (Bial Prize of Clinic Medicine); in 2008 she had a prize with a research about territories of vulnerability or opportunity to health (Prize of Health and Quality of Life in Urban Areas, from the Portuguese Network of Healthy Cities).

Teaching

Urban environment, development and health;

Global health;

Healthy urban planning

Health geography

Main Publications

“Parental Perception of the Social and Physical Environment Contributes to Gender Inequalities in Children’s Screen Time.  Journal of Physical Activity and Healthhttps://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.2021-0436 (2022).

“Municipal health promotion programs – is childhood obesity a concern at local level in Portugal?”, Health Promotion International, p. 1-11.  https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daab044 (2021).

“The economic crisis impact in the BMI of children living in distinct urban environments”, Public Health, 196, p. 29-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2021.04.030 (2021)

“The role of urban design in childhood obesity – a case study in Lisbon, Portugal”, American Journal of Human Biology. e23220, doi: 10.1002/ajhb.23220 (2019).

“Describing studies on childhood obesity determinants by Socio-Ecological Model level: a scoping review to identify gaps and provide guidance for future research”, International Journal of Obesity, doi: 10.1038/s41366-019-0411-3. https://rdcu.be/bJgpF (2019).

”The environment contribution to gender differences in childhood obesity and organized sports engagement”, American Journal of Human Biology. e23322, doi: 10.1002/ajhb.23322. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23322 (2019).

“What is happening to health in the economic downturn? A view of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Portugal”, Annals of Human Biology, 43 (2), p. 164-168, DOI:10.3109/03014460.2015.1131846.(2016)

Research Projects

SCREENHEALTH – Screen Media Use Trajectories, Inequalities, and Long-Term Effects on Children’s Obesity and Mental Health. (Approved for funding by FCT in 2022).

SINDIA – Socio-spatial inequalities in dementia. (Approved for funding by FCT in 2022).

Inequalities in childhood obesity: the impact of the socio-economic crisis in Portugal from 2009 to 2015 (Funded by FCT, 2016-2021)

National Study of Childhood Obesity Prevalence in Portugal, changes from 2002 to 2007. Assessment of the effects of lifestyle and environment (Funded by FCT, 2011-2015)