Professor Dunstan is currently working on over 20 projects. One is an MRC-funded randomised controlled trial with an intervention aimed at reducing prescribing. In general practice, partly to try to reduce the burden of antibiotic resistance.  Other projects in similar areas relate more to direct measures of antibiotic resistance and on factors, especially antibiotic usage, which relate to them. Several projects are concerned with Social Epidemiology, in particular with measuring properties of neighbourhoods and relating these to measures of health.  Much of this centres around two studies, the Caerphilly Prospective Study, a cohort study which has been running for over 27 years, and the Caerphilly Health and Social needs study, a large cross-sectional  study which we hope to turn into a longitudinal study with a  follow up in the next 2 years.

Another interest is in applying statistical, especially Bayesian, methods to devise a tool for use in the identification of child abuse, given a clinical history and a pattern of injuries on presentation. We have just secured a grant of £1.3 million for a 4 year study developing this work. Simulation modelling is another interest and a grant has recently been obtained to model the delivery of cardiac care services, with the aim of reducing inequity and inequality in morbidity arising from coronary heart disease. An ongoing interest is in the spatial and temporal patterns of disease.  Earlier work centred around patterns of various cancers, and also around the risk associated with living near landfill sites, particularly with regard to congenital malformations.  Current work centres around campylobacter infections.  Their aetiology is not well understood and the incidence displays striking seasonality with spatial variations which may give an indication of possible causes of the disease.