Publications by authors named "Alice Hobson"
Guidelines specify that clinicians should support patients living with obesity by referring to weight management programmes (WMPs), but clinicians do so infrequently. To provide additional support to patients living with obesity and weight-related conditions, the UK government instated the National Enhanced Service (NES) for weight management in England, including a reimbursement to general practices for referring eligible patients to WMPs. To assess the impact of the NES on conversations regarding weight and relevant behavioural risk factors in primary care consultations we recruited 11 medical practices in England where the NES was operating and six comparator practices from Scotland and Wales where the NES was not implemented.
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- Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is prevalent among women of reproductive age and often linked to obesity, with clinical guidelines recommending weight loss to manage symptoms, although its effectiveness remains uncertain.* -
- This study aimed to assess the impact of weight loss interventions on various clinical features of PCOS against standard care, using a systematic review of randomized controlled trials.* -
- Results indicated that weight loss interventions led to significant improvements in insulin resistance, hormone levels, and menstrual regularity, while showing no significant negative effects on participants.*
Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate whether pausing a weight loss program for a defined period of time could enhance weight loss and reduce attrition.
Methods: Five databases and two trial registries were searched from inception to July 2023. Randomized-controlled trials of adults with overweight and/or obesity were included if they compared planned-pause interventions with continuous energy restriction (CER), usual care, or a minimal intervention.
Background: Interventions targeting the nutritional quality of grocery shopping have the potential to help improve diet and health outcomes.
Objective: This study aims to assess the feasibility and acceptability of receiving advice on healthier food purchases through SwapSHOP, a behaviorally informed smartphone app that allows users to scan barcodes of grocery products from the United Kingdom, providing nutritional information and personalized swap suggestions to encourage healthier purchases.
Methods: We randomized adult volunteers in a 6-arm parallel-group controlled feasibility trial.
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- A recent study aimed to evaluate the impact of physical activity calorie equivalent (PACE) labels on the amount of calories purchased in worksite cafeterias, following a previous meta-analysis that suggested these labels might help people consume less.
- The study was a randomized controlled trial conducted over 12 weeks across 10 cafeterias in England, involving around 19,000 workers and analyzing over 250,000 transactions.
- Results showed no significant decrease in calories purchased, with minor changes in energy from intervention items and no notable effects on total energy purchased or revenue.
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- This study investigates whether reducing cigarette pack sizes from 25 to 20 can help smokers cut down on their daily intake.
- Conducted as a randomized controlled trial in Canada, adult smokers participated in two 14-day periods where they smoked from both pack sizes.
- Results showed that participants smoked an average of 1.3 fewer cigarettes per day from the 20-pack compared to the 25-pack, indicating that smaller pack sizes may encourage reduced smoking.
Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a shortened Oxford Food and Activity Behaviors (OxFAB) questionnaire to identify the cognitive and behavioral strategies used by individuals during weight-management attempts.
Methods: This study reduced an existing 117-item questionnaire (the original OxFAB questionnaire) through identifying clusters of techniques from the responses of 278 people living with obesity and, within those clusters, identifying the most representative question or questions. Questions were rephrased to cover multiple strategies at the domain level, with several alternative phrasings developed for new questions.
Background: Tobacco point of sale (POS) retail displays are banned in many countries, including in England, due in part to evidence linking them to greater susceptibility to smoking in children. There is no equivalent ban on displays of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) or smoking paraphernalia (eg, cigarette lighters) in England, which are often positioned alongside covered tobacco storage units. This observational study describes the visibility and placement of e-cigarette and smoking paraphernalia POS displays in major tobacco retailers in two cities in England to inform future research examining their possible links to susceptibility to tobacco smoking, particularly in children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: Health warning labels (HWLs) on tobacco products reduce smoking. There is an absence of evidence concerning the impact of alcohol HWLs on selection or purchasing in naturalistic settings. Using a commercial-standard naturalistic shopping laboratory, this study aimed to estimate the impact on selection of alcoholic drinks of HWLs describing adverse health consequences of excessive alcohol consumption.
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