My father, Andrew Boddy, who has died aged 82, was a major figure in the development of public health research and practice in Scotland and beyond.
In 1978 he established the Social Paediatric and Obstetric Research Unit at Glasgow University, funded by the Scottish Office, which later became the Public Health Research Unit. His work was highly influential during a key period in the development of public health research.
His use of large-scale administrative data to analyse health inequalities was particularly innovative. He played a pivotal role in research demonstrating the effects of deprivation on mortality in Scotland, including studies published in 1995 and 2007 (contributing to the latter in his retirement). This work has been cited all over the world, and was used by the Scottish parliament as evidence in support of minimum pricing for alcohol.
He facilitated and contributed to research in many fields, including medical education, community health centre development, and whole-population health protection initiatives. In 1987, for instance, concerned about the growing incidence of HIV among drug injectors in Glasgow, he was one of those who formed the Possilpark Group. Long before multi-agency working was prioritised in policy or practice, the group linked academic specialists with community healthcare providers, pharmacies and hospital teams, including maternity, addiction and health education services. Their research, published in 1993, showed clear benefits from multi-disciplinary cooperation, including reduction in the risk of HIV.
The son of schoolteachers, Janet (nee Noble) and William Boddy, and the elder brother of Jim, Andrew was born in York and grew up in Yorkshire. He attended Prince Henry’s grammar school in Otley and then studied medicine at Edinburgh University, graduating in 1959. He was part of Edinburgh’s lively cultural scene at that time, and is recalled in the publisher John Calder’s 2001 memoir as the “tolerant young doctor” who offered digs to Wole Soyinka and wrote prescriptions for Alexander Trocchi and William Burroughs.
Andrew specialised in epidemiology and spent three years lecturing in Edinburgh before taking a research post at the New York City Health Department, working mainly in East Harlem. In New York, he met Ada Wirzsubska, and when his research took him to Colombia, he brought back an emerald to make a ring. They married in 1965 and moved to Aberdeen, where Andrew lectured in social medicine, before moving in 1969 to Glasgow University, where he remained until retirement in 1998.
Andrew’s work often took him abroad (including a period working with the World Health Organisation) and he loved to travel. His keen photography documented an enduring fascination with the history and culture of the places he visited. He also had a lifelong passion for fly-fishing.
Andrew is survived by Ada, by his daughters, Kasia and me, and by his grandchildren, Gabriel and Oscar.
