INRICH Member Profile Card

Philippa Bird

Bradford Institute for Health Research


Philippa Bird is currently a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University. Philippa completed her PhD at the University of York on the topic “Social gradients in child health and development in relation to income inequality”. She has an MSc Public Health in Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Philippa has previously worked as a researcher at the University of Leeds, where she worked on projects on mental health in Africa and maternal health policy in Asia. She has also researched access to health care and health inequalities as the University of Liverpool.


Type of member: Post graduate Researcher


Telephone: 514 398 5771

Email Address: Pippa.Bird@bthft.nhs.uk

Mailing Address: Charles Meredith House, 1130 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 1A3


Collaborative Projects

EPOCH project (Elucidating Pathways on Child Health Inequalities); PhD project on social gradients in child health and development in relation to income inequality.

Current research interests
I currently conduct research on inequalities in child health and development in relation to income inequality. I also work on issues related to the measurement of socioeconomic position and the causes of child health inequalities. I am also working on a project on methods for synthesising evidence on the social determinants of health.

Research priorities
Pathways and mechanisms: Cumulative and additive social risk exposures (e.g. transient v. persistent poverty). Stress and allostatic load. | Methodological issues: Need to study social gradients as well as poverty. Multi-level studies - Society, Family & Individual. Root cause analysis to inform policy change.


Selected publications

Cabieses, B., & Bird, P. (2014). Glossary of Access to Health Care and Related Concepts for Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs): A Critical Review of International Literature. International Journal of Health Services, 44(4), 845-861. doi:10.2190/hs.44.4.j

Elgar, F. J., Clercq, B. D., Schnohr, C. W., Bird, P., Pickett, K. E., Torsheim, T., . . . Currie, C. (2013). Absolute and relative family affluence and psychosomatic symptoms in adolescents. Social Science & Medicine, 91, 25-31. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.04.030