Design and development of a complex narrative intervention delivered by text messages to reduce binge drinking among socially disadvantaged men.

Background: Socially disadvantaged men are at high risk of suffering from alcohol-related harm. Disadvantaged groups are less likely to engage with health promotion. There is a need for interventions that reach large numbers at low cost and which promote high levels of engagement with the behaviour change process.

Texting to Reduce Alcohol Misuse (TRAM): main findings from a randomized controlled trial of a text message intervention to reduce binge drinking among disadvantaged men.

Aims: To test the effectiveness of a theoretically based text-message intervention to reduce binge drinking among socially disadvantaged men.

Design: A multi-centre parallel group, pragmatic, individually randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Community-based study conducted in four regions of Scotland.

Design and feasibility testing of a novel group intervention for young women who binge drink in groups.

Background: Young women frequently drink alcohol in groups and binge drinking within these natural drinking groups is common. This study describes the design of a theoretically and empirically based group intervention to reduce binge drinking among young women. It also evaluates their engagement with the intervention and the acceptability of the study methods.

Modifying Alcohol Consumption to Reduce Obesity: A Randomized Controlled Feasibility Study of a Complex Community-based Intervention for Men.

Objectives: Being obese and drinking more than 14 units of alcohol per week places men at very high risk of developing liver disease. This study assessed the feasibility of a trial to reduce alcohol consumption. It tested the recruitment strategy, engagement with the intervention, retention and study acceptability.

Real Time Monitoring of Engagement with a Text Message Intervention to Reduce Binge Drinking Among Men Living in Socially Disadvantaged Areas of Scotland.

Purpose: This study identified the extent and nature of engagement with a theoretically based behaviour change text message intervention intended to reduce binge drinking. The data were from a randomised controlled trial tackling binge drinking among socially disadvantaged men.

Method: An intervention, comprising 112 text messages, and based on the principles of the Health Action Process Approach, was delivered to 411 socially disadvantaged men.

Modifying Alcohol Consumption to Reduce Obesity (MACRO): development and feasibility trial of a complex community-based intervention for men.

Background: Obese men who consume alcohol are at a greatly increased risk of liver disease; those who drink > 14 units of alcohol per week have a 19-fold increased risk of dying from liver disease.

Objectives: To develop an intervention to reduce alcohol consumption in obese men and to assess the feasibility of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to investigate its effectiveness.

Design Of The Intervention: The intervention was developed using formative research, public involvement and behaviour change theory.

Alcohol and disadvantaged men: A feasibility trial of an intervention delivered by mobile phone.

Introduction And Aims: Disadvantaged men suffer substantial harm from heavy drinking. This feasibility study developed and evaluated the methods for a trial of a brief intervention delivered by text messages to disadvantaged men. It aimed to test the methods for recruitment and retention, to monitor engagement with the intervention and assess the overall acceptability of study methods.

The role of perceived barriers and objectively measured physical activity in adults aged 65-100.

Objective: to test the predictive utility of perceived barriers to objectively measured physical activity levels in a stratified sample of older adults when accounting for social-cognitive determinants proposed by the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), and economic and demographic factors.

Methods: data were analysed from the Physical Activity Cohort Scotland survey, a representative and stratified (65-80 and 80+ years; deprived and affluent) sample of 584 community-dwelling older people, resident in Tayside, Scotland. Physical activity was measured objectively by accelerometry.

A mobile phone intervention to reduce binge drinking among disadvantaged men: study protocol for a randomised controlled cost-effectiveness trial.

Background: Socially disadvantaged men are at a substantially higher risk of developing alcohol-related problems. The frequency of heavy drinking in a single session is high among disadvantaged men. Brief alcohol interventions were developed for, and are usually delivered in, healthcare settings.

Dog ownership and physical activity in later life: a cross-sectional observational study.

Objective: To examine whether dog ownership amongst community dwelling older adults (≥ 65 years) is associated with objectively measured physical activity (PA).

Methods: We used data from the Physical Activity Cohort Scotland (PACS) which consists of 547 people aged 65 and over, resident in the community in Tayside, Scotland. The data was collected in 2009-2011.

Association of day length and weather conditions with physical activity levels in older community dwelling people.

Background: Weather is a potentially important determinant of physical activity. Little work has been done examining the relationship between weather and physical activity, and potential modifiers of any relationship in older people. We therefore examined the relationship between weather and physical activity in a cohort of older community-dwelling people.

Psychological theory in an interdisciplinary context: psychological, demographic, health-related, social, and environmental correlates of physical activity in a representative cohort of community-dwelling older adults.

Background: Physical activity (PA) in older adults is influenced by a range of environmental, demographic, health-related, social, and psychological variables. Social cognitive psychological models assume that all influences on behaviour operate indirectly through the models constructs, i.e.

Risky single-occasion drinking and disadvantaged men: will recruitment through primary care miss hazardous drinkers?

Background: Men who are socially disadvantaged are at a substantially higher risk of developing alcohol-related diseases. People from deprived areas are known to be more difficult to recruit to research studies. As part of a feasibility assessment for an intervention study, 2 recruitment strategies were investigated.

Can text messages reach the parts other process measures cannot reach: an evaluation of a behavior change intervention delivered by mobile phone?

Background: Process evaluation is essential in developing, piloting and evaluating complex interventions. This often involves observation of intervention delivery and interviews with study participants. Mobile telephone interventions involve no face to face contact, making conventional process evaluation difficult.

Social, environmental and psychological factors associated with objective physical activity levels in the over 65s.

Objective: To assess physical activity levels objectively using accelerometers in community dwelling over 65 s and to examine associations with health, social, environmental and psychological factors.

Design: Cross sectional survey.

Setting: 17 general practices in Scotland, United Kingdom.

Maternal feeding behaviour and young children's dietary quality: a cross-sectional study of socially disadvantaged mothers of two-year old children using the Theory of Planned Behaviour.

Background: Having breakfast, eating food 'cooked from scratch' and eating together as a family have health and psychosocial benefits for young children. This study investigates how these parentally determined behaviours relate to children's dietary quality and uses a psychological model, the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), to investigate socio-cognitive predictors of these behaviours in socially disadvantaged mothers of young children in Scotland.

Method: Three hundred mothers of children aged 2 years (from 372 invited to participate, 81% response rate), recruited via General Practitioners, took part in home-based semi-structured interviews in a cross-sectional survey of maternal psychological factors related to their children's dietary quality.

The rising tide of liver Cirrhosis mortality in the UK: can its halt be predicted?

Aim: To explore whether it is possible to predict future United Kingdom (UK) death rate of liver cirrhosis based on birth cohort models.

Method: Routinely available mortality data were plotted graphically to display the trends in cirrhosis mortality by birth cohort in several countries. Data for Italy, France, Portugal, USA, Canada, Scotland and England & Wales were plotted by birth cohort.

Assessing pain and mood in a poorly resourced country in a post-conflict setting.

Context: Accurate pain assessment is important but presents problems in poorly resourced countries. A civil war in Sierra Leone resulted in civilian casualties with pain from deliberate amputation and other injuries.

Objectives: To examine the quality of simple pain and mood scales.

Clues to duration of undiagnosed disease from retinopathy and maculopathy at diagnosis in type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study.

Aims: To extrapolate, from the proportion of subjects with observable retinopathy at diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus in routine clinical practice, the mean duration of undiagnosed diabetes.

Methods: On 1 October 1999, there were 4313 patients with type 2 diabetes in the 41 participating practices in the Tayside region (registered with one of 166 GPs). 501 (12%; 95% CI 11 to 13%) patients were selected using a pseudo-random number allocation algorithm, and practice lists checked for recently deceased, non-residents (45 exclusions).

Changes in the social class gradient of cirrhosis mortality in England and Wales across the 20th century.

Aim: To explore the nature of the social class gradient of cirrhosis mortality in England and Wales across the 20th century.

Methods: Data on male cirrhosis mortality by social class were obtained from the Registrar General's Decennial Supplements for the years 1921-1991. Data for 1941 were not collected because of the second World War.

Drugs dispensed in primary care during pregnancy: a record-linkage analysis in Tayside, Scotland.

Background: For many regularly used drugs, evidence for safe use in pregnancy has not been established. Despite this, international studies have identified high levels of drug prescribing among pregnant women.

Objective: To investigate the patterns of prescribing of drugs to women who gave birth in Tayside, Scotland, in 2007.

Strategies for achieving a high response rate in a home interview survey.

Background: Response rates in surveys have been falling over the last 20 years, leading to the need for novel approaches to enhance recruitment. This study describes strategies used to maximise recruitment to a home interview survey of mothers with young children living in areas of high deprivation.

Methods: Mothers of two year old children received a letter from their GP inviting them to take part in a survey on diet.

What maternal factors influence the diet of 2-year-old children living in deprived areas? A cross-sectional survey.

Objective: To investigate the maternal factors associated with poor diet among disadvantaged children.

Design: Survey of 300 mothers of 2-year-old children from areas of high deprivation in Scotland (response rate 81 %). A diet quality score was derived from reported consumption of carbohydrates, protein, fruit and vegetables, dairy products and restriction of sugary fatty foods.