Publications by authors named "Dianna Smith"

The concept of 'resilience' is pervasive, permeating academic disciplines and political discourses. This paper considers (i) the construal of 'resilience' in the contexts of food insecurity and cost-of-living in governmental discourses in the United Kingdom (UK); (ii) to what extent the political representations are reflected in research funding calls of UK national funding bodies, thus showing possibility of shaping research agendas; and (iii) to what extent official uses of 'resilience' reflect lay understandings. We are combining a corpus-based discourse analysis of UK governmental discourses and research funding calls with a study of focus group discussions.

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Objective: Households with children accessing food aid in high-income countries are often food insecure. We aimed to review the evidence on food aid interventions in households with children and impact on food insecurity, diet quality and mental health.

Design: A systematic search was conducted using Web of Science, MEDLINE, CINAHL and PsycINFO.

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Australia is a multicultural nation with nearly 30% of the population born overseas. Migrants' mental health can be impacted by discrimination, racism and experiences relating to asylum and immigration. These can be compounded by low help-seeking caused by stigmatized beliefs and poor mental health literacy.

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Background: Food insecurity is defined as not having safe and regular access to nutritious food to meet basic needs. This review aimed to systematically examine the evidence analysing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food insecurity and diet quality in households with children <18 years in high-income countries.

Methods: EMBASE, Cochrane Library, International Bibliography of Social Science, and Web of Science; and relevant sites for grey literature were searched on 01/09/2023.

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Background: Food membership clubs that charge a small fee for a set number of items are in place in Wessex to address food insecurity (inadequate reliable access to sufficient affordable, nutritious food). These clubs incorporate longer-term solutions such as budgeting support, benefit maximisation, and cooking skills. The Wessex DIET project was established to measure acceptability and impact of these clubs.

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Background: A Childhood Obesity Risk Estimation tool (SLOPE CORE) has been developed based on prediction models using routinely available maternity and early childhood data to estimate risk of childhood obesity at 4-5 years. This study aims to test the feasibility, acceptability and usability of SLOPE CORE within an enhanced health visiting (EHV) service in the UK, as one context in which this tool could be utilised.

Methods: A mixed methods approach was used to assess feasibility of implementing SLOPE CORE.

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Factors from social and food environments can influence the food choices of adolescents in ways not experienced during childhood. Evidence suggests these two environments influence adolescents' food choices independently, but there is limited knowledge of how the interplay between these environments influence adolescents' diets. An enhanced understanding of this interplay surrounding adolescent food choice could aid the development of more nuanced interventions and policies.

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Adolescence is a period of increased autonomy over decision-making, including food choices, and increased exposure to influences outside the home, including the food environment. This review aims to synthesize the evidence for the influence of community nutrition environments, spatial access to food outlets, and consumer nutrition environments, environments inside food outlets, on adolescent food purchasing and dietary behaviors in high-income countries. Six databases were searched for articles published before January 2023.

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Background: In England, the responsibility to address food insecurity lies with local government, yet the prevalence of this social inequality is unknown in small subnational areas. In 2018 an index of small-area household food insecurity risk was developed and utilised by public and third sector organisations to target interventions; this measure needed updating to better support decisions in different settings, such as urban and rural areas where pressures on food security differ.

Methods: We held interviews with stakeholders (n = 14) and completed a scoping review to identify appropriate variables to create an updated risk measure.

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Background: Treatment burden is the effort required of patients to look after their health and the impact this has on their functioning and wellbeing. Little is known about change in treatment burden over time for people with multimorbidity.

Aim: To quantify change in treatment burden, determine factors associated with this change, and evaluate a revised single-item measure for high treatment burden in older adults with multimorbidity.

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Environments of parenthood are changing with increasing rates of dual-working households, more single-parent and non-traditional families, increasing cost of childcare, and growing reliance on online communities for information and support. However, everyday parenthood activities are still primarily conducted at "home". In this paper, we draw on a study which initially aimed to explore parent health and wellbeing in everyday contexts before COVID-19, but the pandemic shaped the enquiry further.

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Background: Treatment burden is the effort required of patients to look after their health and the impact this has on their functioning and wellbeing. It is likely treatment burden changes over time as circumstances change for patients and health services. However, there are a lack of population-level studies of treatment burden change and factors associated with this change over time.

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Background: Small-area estimation models are regularly commissioned by public health bodies to identify areas of greater inequality and target areas for intervention in a range of behaviours and outcomes. Such local modelling has not been completed for diet consumption in England despite diet being an important predictor of health status. The study sets out whether aspects of adult diet can be modelled from previously collected data to define and evaluate area-level interventions to address obesity and ill-health.

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Background: Many diet-related surveys have been conducted in England over the past four to five decades. Yet, diet-related ill-health is estimated to cost the NHS £5.8 billion annually.

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Background: Use of health services is increasing in many countries. Most health service research exploring determinants of use has focused on adults and on secondary care. Less is known about factors associated with the use of the emergency department (ED) and general practice (GP) among young children.

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Background: Nearly a third of children in the UK are overweight, with the prevalence in the most deprived areas more than twice that in the least deprived. The aim was to develop a risk identification model for childhood overweight/obesity applied during pregnancy and early life using routinely collected population-level healthcare data.

Methods: A population-based anonymised linked cohort of maternal antenatal records (January 2003 to September 2013) and birth/early-life data for their children with linked body mass index (BMI) measurements at 4-5 years (n = 29,060 children) in Hampshire, UK was used.

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Background: Geographical inequalities in overweight and obesity prevalence among children are well established in cross-sectional research. We aimed to examine how environmental area characteristics at birth are related to these outcomes in childhood.

Methods: Anonymised antenatal and birth data recorded by University Hospital Southampton linked to school-measured weight and height data for children within Southampton, UK, were utilised (14,084 children at ages 4-5 and 5637 at ages 10-11).

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Objectives: To investigate socioeconomic inequalities, using maternal educational attainment, maternal and partner employment status, and lone motherhood indicators, in the risk of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) births, their time trend, potential mediation by maternal smoking and body mass index, and effect modification by parity.

Design: Population-based birth cohort using routine antenatal healthcare data.

Setting: Babies born at University Hospital Southampton, UK, between 2004 and 2016.

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There is a cross-sectional evidence that physical and social environments are linked to childhood adiposity. Evidence is scarce for the role of preconception, pregnancy, and early-life area-level characteristics in shaping childhood adiposity. We aimed to systematically review evidence for associations between physical and social environmental conditions experienced in these periods and childhood adiposity.

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Objectives: To explore disparities in severity of baseline disease, treatment completion, and treatment outcomes among patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) receiving anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy by socio-economic status (SES) and distance from home to hospital.

Study Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Methods: Data from clinic records of 756 wet AMD patients receiving treatment for wet AMD with aflibercept between May 2013 and Jan 2017 were obtained.

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Objective: There is an immense socioeconomic burden for both the patients with motor neuron disease (MND) and their families. The aim of this study is to evaluate the extent to which the provision offered by the Motor Neurone Disease Association is distributed among patients with MND living in the ethnically and socially diverse area of Greater London, according to the patients' socioeconomic situation and needs.

Setting: Greater London, where age and sex-adjusted prevalence rates of MND in 2016 were calculated.

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If current trends in food insecurity continue then the diets of low-income people may become characterised by the inclusion of significant amounts of donated and surplus food accessed via the third-sector. These developments have yet to be integrated into macro models and concepts of the food environment. Addressing this caveat is necessary in order to both help build an evidence base to challenge policies that exacerbate the drivers of food insecurity and to inform interventions aimed at improving the diets of disadvantaged populations.

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Background: National guidelines (NICE-CG175) recommended 12 weeks of supervised exercise training for men treated with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for prostate cancer to counter debilitating adverse effects of castration. As with other chronic conditions where exercise is indicated, it is uncertain if these services are being delivered in the health services. The aim of this multi-centre investigation was to examine what exercise referral is currently available for men on ADT as provided by the NHS and if a supervised, individually-tailored exercise training package (as per the national NICE guidelines CG175) is embedded within prostate cancer care.

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Despite the increasing recognition of household food insecurity as a policy issue, there is currently no routine measurement of food insecurity in the UK. There is nothing to suggest that Government will address this in the near future for all parts of the UK. In which case, policy makers and campaigners might instead seek out consistent and robust measures of the population-level factors which are known to contribute to food insecurity.

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Introduction: Previous studies have explored the effect of urbanisation on the prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) at regional/national level. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between urbanisation and T2D at country level, worldwide, and to explore the role of intermediate variables (physical inactivity, sugar consumption and obesity). The potential effect modification of gross domestic product (GDP) was also assessed.

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