Young adults' experiences of biographical retrogression whilst living with long COVID.

During the early years (2020-2021) of the COVID-19 pandemic, relatively little attention focused on experiences of people with long-lasting symptoms, particularly young adults who were commonly understood to be invulnerable to serious effects of the virus. Drawing on narrative interviews with 15 adults in their twenties and living in the UK when they became ill with long COVID, we explore contextual factors which made their long COVID illness experience, and the wholescale disruption to their lives, challenging. We propose that existing adaptations of the concept of biographical disruption are problematic for this group, and instead suggest that 'biographical retrogression' may more accurately reflect these young adults' experiences.

Text Messages With Financial Incentives for Men With Obesity: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Effective weight loss interventions are needed for men with obesity.

Objective: To determine whether an intervention that combined text messaging with financial incentives attained significant weight loss at the 12-month follow-up compared with the control group and whether an intervention of text messaging alone attained significant weight loss at the 12-month follow-up compared with the control group.

Design, Setting, And Participants: An assessor-blinded randomized clinical trial conducted in Belfast, Bristol, and Glasgow areas in the UK.

The double invisibility of Long Covid in children.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been dominated by discussions of mild and short-lasting cases or acutely serious or lethal forms of the disease; less attention has been paid to long-term Covid-19 symptoms ('Long Covid'), particularly in children. This analysis of the experiences of children and adolescents with Long Covid, and those of their parents/caregivers, argues that children with Long Covid encounter a 'double invisibility' due to the condition's limited social currency and their status as the youngest members of society. We draw on 39 narrative interviews about children's and adolescents' experiences, conducted in 2021-2022 in the United Kingdom.

Impact of Long Covid on the school experiences of children and young people: a qualitative study.

Objectives: To explore the impact of Long Covid (LC) on the school experiences of children and young people (CYP).

Design: Qualitative study using narrative interviews.

Participants: 22 CYP (aged 10-18 years, 15 female) with LC and 15 parents/caregivers (13 female) of CYP (aged 5-18 years) with LC.

Negotiation of collective and individual candidacy for long Covid healthcare in the early phases of the Covid-19 pandemic: Validated, diverted and rejected candidacy.

This analysis of people's accounts of establishing their need and experiences of healthcare for long Covid (LC) symptoms draws on interview data from five countries (UK, US, Netherlands, Canada, Australia) during the first ∼18 months of the Covid-19 pandemic when LC was an emerging, sometimes contested, condition with scant scientific or lay knowledge to guide patients and professionals in their sense-making of often bewildering constellations of symptoms. We extend the construct of candidacy to explore positive and (more often) negative experiences that patients reported in their quest to understand their symptoms and seek appropriate care. Candidacy usually considers how individuals negotiate healthcare access.

Fit for LIFE: the development and optimization of an intervention delivered through prison gymnasia to support incarcerated men in making positive lifestyle changes.

Background: Despite prison settings presenting opportunities for healthy eating and regular exercise, many incarcerated men supplement prison food with unhealthy snacks and drinks, and are less likely to achieve recommended physical activity guidelines than non-incarcerated men. This paper describes the co-development with prison staff of a healthy lifestyle intervention for delivery to incarcerated men, and feasibility testing of its delivery through prison physical education departments.

Methods: The starting point for intervention development was Football Fans in Training (FFIT), an evidence-based intervention successful in engaging men and supporting them to lose weight, make positive lifestyle changes and maintain these long term.

How men receive and utilise partner support when trying to change their diet and physical activity within a men's weight management programme.

Background: The impacts of interventions designed to change health behaviours are potentially affected by the complex social systems in which they are embedded. This study uses Scottish data to explore how men receive and utilise partner support when attempting to change dietary practices and physical activity within the context of Football Fans in Training (FFIT), a gender-sensitised weight management and healthy living programme for men who are overweight/obese.

Methods: Separate semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 20 men and their cohabiting female partners (total n = 40), 3-12 months after the men had completed FFIT.

Can professional football clubs deliver a weight management programme for women: a feasibility study.

Background: Levels of obesity remain high in the UK. The Football Fans in Training (FFIT) randomised controlled trial (RCT) demonstrated that a 12-week, gender-sensitised weight management, physical activity and healthy eating group programme delivered through professional football clubs helped men aged 35-65 years with BMI at least 28 kg/m lose a clinically-significant amount of weight. We aimed to test the feasibility of a minimally-adapted FFIT programme for delivery to women by assessing recruitment and completion rates; determining if the programme content and delivery required further refinement; and evaluating the potential of FFIT for Women to deliver improvements in weight and other clinical, behavioural and psychological outcomes.

Group-based healthy lifestyle workplace interventions for shift workers: a systematic review.

Objective Shift work is a risk factor for many chronic diseases and has been associated with unhealthy lifestyle behaviors. Workplaces have great potential for promoting and supporting behavior change. We conducted a systematic review of group-based lifestyle workplace interventions for shift workers to (i) identify adaptations and intervention components that accommodate shift working and (ii) assess their impact on weight, physical activity, sedentary behavior and healthy eating.

Long-term weight loss trajectories following participation in a randomised controlled trial of a weight management programme for men delivered through professional football clubs: a longitudinal cohort study and economic evaluation.

Background: Obesity is a major public health concern requiring innovative interventions that support people to lose weight and keep it off long term. However, weight loss maintenance remains a challenge and is under-researched, particularly in men. The Football Fans in Training (FFIT) programme engages men in weight management through their interest in football, and encourages them to incorporate small, incremental physical activity and dietary changes into daily life to support long-term weight loss maintenance.

Does gender matter? An analysis of men's and women's accounts of responding to symptoms of lung cancer.

Men are often portrayed - in research studies, 'common-sense' accounts and popular media - as reluctant users of health services. They are said to avoid going to the GP whenever possible, while women are portrayed, in presumed opposition, as consulting more readily, more frequently and with less serious complaints. Such stereotypes may inadvertently encourage doctors to pay greater heed to men's symptoms in 'routine' consultations.

'Coz football is what we all have': masculinities, practice, performance and effervescence in a gender-sensitised weight-loss and healthy living programme for men.

In this paper we use a social practice approach to explore men's experience of Football Fans in Training (FFIT), a group-based weight management programme for men that harnesses men's symbolic attachment to professional football clubs to engage them in lifestyle change. FFIT is delivered by community coaches in clubs' stadia and is gender-sensitised in relation to context, content and style of delivery. Using a 'toolkit' of concepts from the work of Bourdieu, Goffman and Durkheim we analysed data from 13 focus group discussions with participants, and fieldwork notes from programme observations to investigate the appeal and success of FFIT, and how it worked to support change.

Prevalence of eating disorders in males: a review of rates reported in academic research and UK mass media.

Media presentations of health issues affect evaluations of personal susceptibility to particular illnesses and hence help-seeking behaviours. We examined data on prevalence of eating disorders (EDs - which are often characterised as 'female') among males in: scientific literature; readily-accessible web-based information; and UK newspaper articles (published 7/12/2002-7/12/2012). This revealed conflicting statistics.

"It's not healthy and it's decidedly not masculine": a media analysis of UK newspaper representations of eating disorders in males.

Objectives: Recent qualitative research found young men reporting that an expectation that eating disorders (EDs) mainly affect young women led them, and others, to only recognise their symptoms when their ED had become entrenched. This raises questions about how these stereotypes persist. We therefore explored how EDs in males were represented in articles published in UK newspapers over a 10-year period (7.

Do weight management programmes delivered at professional football clubs attract and engage high risk men? A mixed-methods study.

Background: The prevalence of obesity in men in the UK is amongst the highest in Europe but men are less likely than women to use existing weight loss programmes. Developing weight management programmes which are appealing and acceptable to men is a public health priority. Football Fans in Training (FFIT), a men-only weight management programme delivered to groups of men at top professional football clubs, encourages men to lose weight by working with, not against, cultural ideals of masculinity.

Symptoms of Mental Health Problems: Children's and Adolescents' Understandings and Implications for Gender Differences in Help Seeking.

Amidst concerns that young people's mental health is deteriorating, it is important to explore their understandings of symptoms of mental health problems and beliefs around help seeking. Drawing on focus group data from Scottish school pupils, we demonstrate how they understood symptoms of mental health problems and how their characterisations of these symptoms as 'rare' and 'weird' informed participants' perceptions that peers, teachers and parents would respond to disclosure in stigmatising ways. Consequently, participants suggested that they would delay or avoid disclosing symptoms of mental health problems.

How robust is the evidence of an emerging or increasing female excess in physical morbidity between childhood and adolescence? Results of a systematic literature review and meta-analyses.

For asthma and psychological morbidity, it is well established that higher prevalence among males in childhood is replaced by higher prevalence among females by adolescence. This review investigates whether there is evidence for a similar emerging female 'excess' in relation to a broad range of physical morbidity measures. Establishing whether this pattern is generalised or health outcome-specific will further understandings of the aetiology of gender differences in health.

Comparing the effectiveness of using generic and specific search terms in electronic databases to identify health outcomes for a systematic review: a prospective comparative study of literature search methods.

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of systematic review literature searches that use either generic or specific terms for health outcomes.

Design: Prospective comparative study of two electronic literature search strategies. The 'generic' search included general terms for health such as 'adolescent health', 'health status', 'morbidity', etc.

'Rules' for boys, 'guidelines' for girls: Gender differences in symptom reporting during childhood and adolescence.

The emergence of higher reported morbidity in females compared with males is a feature of adolescent health in a large proportion of the world's industrialised countries. In this paper, qualitative data from twenty-five single-sex focus groups (90 participants in total) conducted with 10-, 13-, and 15-year olds in two Scottish schools is used to explore whether symptom reporting is influenced by perceived societal gender- and age-related expectations and the social context of symptom experiences. The degree to which these factors can help explain quantitative evidence of increases in gender differences in symptom reporting during adolescence is also examined.

Observations from behind the bar: changing patrons' behaviours in response to smoke-free legislation in Scotland.

Background: "Smoke-Free" legislation prohibiting smoking in all enclosed public places was introduced in March 2006. This qualitative study presents insights from bar workers about their observations of the changing social bar environment, changing patrons' behaviours and challenges bar workers have faced in managing smoke-free legislation.

Methods: Twelve in-depth interviews were conducted between November 2006 and January 2007 with a purposively-selected sample of bar workers, identified from a larger quantitative study evaluating the impact of the legislation in Scotland [the Bar Workers' Health and Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure project (BHETSE)].