Contact Details
- Phone
- +64 3 479 8512
- bob.hancox@otago.ac.nz
- Position
- Research Professor and Head of Department
- Department
- Department of Preventive and Social Medicine
- Qualifications
- BSc MB ChB MD MRCP(UK) FRACP
- Research summary
- Respiratory epidemiology
- Clinical
- Respiratory Physician
Research
Bob Hancox is a respiratory specialist who combines epidemiological and clinical research to investigate why people develop diseases such as asthma, allergies, and chronic lung disease and to find better ways to assess and treat these disorders. Much of his research is based on the long-running Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, which has followed 1,037 children since their birth in Dunedin in the early 1970s into adult life. Important findings from this research reveal how childhood experiences and lifestyle affect lung health in adulthood.
He also leads the Next Generation Study, which assesses the children of the Dunedin Study members to understand how health and well-being transfer across generations. Other research has included investigations into the long-term effects of television viewing on children’s health, social, and educational development, and into the early-life origins of obesity.