School of Social and Political Science

Research interests

Nason's research interests centre on the structural and commercial determinants of health, with a special interest in how they shape public understanding and policy. This includes primary research on the alcohol, sugar sweetened beverage, firearm, social media, and fossil fuel industries, as well as policy research on the relationships between underinvestment, commercial influence and inequity. Along with colleagues, he also contributes to writing in more public facing fora, videos and other media to communicate research to wider audiences (see for example here), and hosts Money Power Health, a podcast on the commercial drivers of ill health (available on Apple, Spotify). 

He has served as a consultant and expert for the WHO on the commercial determinants of health, and is an editor alongside Sandro Galea and Mark Petticrew of the book "The Commercial Determinants of Health", released by Oxford University Press. He is currently a co-investigator on an NIHR Three Schools-funded scoping review of the commercial determinants of mental health. 

Nason welcomes contact from potential PhD candidates interested in research in mixed methods research the social and commercial determinants of health. 

Selected publications: 

1. Maani N, van Schalkwyk MCI, Petticrew M, Buse, K. The pollution of health discourse and the need for effective counter-framing. BMJ 2022;377:o1128
2. Zenone, M., Kenworthy N, Maani, N. The Social Media Industry as a Commercial Determinant of Health. IJHPM 2022, in press. DOI: 10.34172/IJHPM.2022.6840
3. Price K, Maani N, Milner J. Meat, money and messaging: How the environmental and health harms of red and processed meat consumption are framed by the meat industry. Food Policy 2022;109:102234.
4. Maani N, Van Schalkwyk MC, Filippidis FT, Knai C, Petticrew M. Manufacturing doubt: Assessing the effects of independent vs industry-sponsored messaging on the harms of fossil fuels, smoking, alcohol, and sugar sweetened beverages (In Press, Social Science and Medicine – Population Health)
5. Maani, N, Van Schalkwyk MC, Petticrew M, Galea S. The commercial determinants of three contemporary national crises: How corporate practices intersect with the COVID-19 pandemic, economic downturn, and racial inequity. Milbank Quarterly 2021;99(2):503-518
6. Maani N, Van Schalkwyk MC, Petticrew M, Ralston R, Collin J. The new WHO Foundation — global health deserves better. BMJ Global Health 2021;6:e004950
7. Petticrew M, Maani N, Pettigrew L, Rutter H, van Schalkwyk MC. Dark Nudges in Big Alcohol: behavioral economics and alcohol industry Corporate Social Responsibility. Milbank Quarterly 2020;98(4):1290-1328
8. Maani N, Abdalla S, Galea S. The firearms industry as a commercial determinant of health. AJPH 2020;110(8):1182-3
9. Maani N, Collin J, Friel S, Gilmore AB, McCambridge J, Robertson L, Petticrew M. Bringing the commercial determinants of health out of the shadows: a review of how the commercial determinants are represented in conceptual frameworks. Eur J Public Health. 2020 Jan 18. pii: ckz19
10. Maani N, van Schalkwyk MC, Thomas S, Petticrew M. Alcohol industry CSR organisations: What can their Twitter activity tell us about their independence and their priorities? A comparative analysis. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 2019;16(5):892
11. Maani N, Ruskin G, McKee M, Stuckler D. Public Meets Private: Conversations Between Coca-Cola and the CDC. Milbank Quarterly, 2019 Mar;97(1):74-90
12. Petticrew M, Maani N, Knai C, Weiderpass E. How alcohol industry organisations mislead the public about alcohol and cancer. Drug and Alcohol Review, 2018 Mar;37(3):293-303