'McDonalds and KFC, it's never going to happen': the challenges of working with food outlets to tackle the obesogenic environment.

Background: Food outlets may make an important contribution to an obesogenic environment. This study investigated barriers and facilitators to public health work with food outlets in disadvantaged areas.

Methods: In-depth qualitative interviews with 36 directors, managers and public health service delivery staff in a coterminous primary care trust and local authority in northwest England.

The experience of community engagement for individuals: a rapid review of evidence.

Community engagement is central to strategies to promote health and well-being and reduce health inequalities in many countries, particularly interventions which focus on improving health in disadvantaged populations. Despite the widespread use of community engagement approaches, however, there have been relatively few attempts to review the evidence on the impact that participation has on the lives of individuals involved. Drawing on a wider review of evidence carried out on behalf of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), this article reports on a rapid review of evidence of the effectiveness of initiatives which seek to engage communities in action to address the wider social determinants of health, to explore individuals' subjective experiences of engagement.

Students' attitudes to the communications employed during an outbreak of meningococcal disease in a UK school: a qualitative study.

Background: Following an outbreak of meningococcal disease in a school in the North West of England, the communication methods employed by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) were evaluated in order to explore ways of improving communication with the public.

Methods: Qualitative questionnaires were distributed to Year 12 (sixth form) students. The Framework approach was used to analyse the data, which were coded, and emergent themes identified.

Planning ahead in public health? A qualitative study of the time horizons used in public health decision-making.

Background: In order to better understand factors that influence decisions for public health, we undertook a qualitative study to explore issues relating to the time horizons used in decision-making.

Methods: Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. 33 individuals involved in the decision making process around coronary heart disease were purposively sampled from the UK National Health Service (national, regional and local levels), academia and voluntary organizations.

Policy-makers' attitudes to decision support models for coronary heart disease: a qualitative study.

Objectives: To explore attitudes to the use of models for coronary heart disease to support decision-making for policy and service planning.

Methods: Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 33 policy- and decision-makers purposively sampled from the UK National Health Service (NHS) (national, regional and local levels), academia and voluntary organizations. Interviews were transcribed, coded and emergent themes identified using framework analysis aided by NVivo software.

Starting young? Children's experiences of trying smoking during pre-adolescence.

Although the risks smoking poses to health are now well known, many young people continue to take up the habit. While numerous cross-sectional studies of adolescents have identified correlates of smoking initiation, much less prospective, longitudinal research has been conducted with young children to gather their accounts of early experiences of smoking, and this study fills that significant gap. Quantitative and qualitative data, collected using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups, are presented from the pre-adolescent phase of the Liverpool Longitudinal Study of Smoking.

Lies, damned lies and statistics? Reliability and personal accounts of smoking among young people.

Smoking remains a major problem among young people in Europe. However, within the research community examining the issue, debate continues about the best way of assessing the extent of that problem. Questions have been raised about the extent to which existing techniques for generating statistical representations of patterns of youth smoking can address a range of problems connected with identifying, accounting for and correcting unreliable self-report smoking data.