Publications by authors named "Mark Conner"

Introduction: Persistent knee pain often due to knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a highly prevalent and disabling condition. Electronic-rehabilitation (e-rehab) programmes have the potential to support self-management of knee OA. This study aimed to evaluate user engagement and acceptability of two e-rehab programmes, Group e-rehab, a remote physiotherapy-led programme and My Knee UK, a self-directed web-based exercise programme.

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Behavioral intentions predict behavior better if they are stable over time. A statistical argument suggests that this is due to less measurement error, but recent theoretical advances suggest self-regulatory effects: durable intentions remain temporally stable due to their persistence when faced with challenges. Here, we leverage intensive longitudinal data on adherence with non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 623; total assessments = 19,740; study duration: 6 months each).

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This study aimed to assess the extent to which healthcare professional characteristics and perceptions of major stressors during a public health emergency were associated with delivering health behaviour change interventions. A survey was administered in 2022 to a representative sample of 1008 healthcare professionals working in the UK's National Health Service (NHS). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and hierarchical linear regression.

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Article Synopsis
  • Emergency doctors experience high levels of uncertainty due to limited patient information and time constraints, prompting a study on how 'uncertainty tolerance' (UT) affects their work.
  • A questionnaire was distributed among emergency doctors to develop a UT measure and analyze its impact on doctors' experience, patient outcomes, and resource utilization during encounters with specific medical issues.
  • Findings showed that higher UT is associated with better psychological well-being among doctors, such as increased resilience and lower burnout, but it did not significantly influence patient outcomes or resource usage.
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Objective: Behavioral intentions are one of the strongest predictors of health behavior. The current research explored the factors predicting action in those with already strong intentions (i.e.

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Cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes are prevalent among UK South Asians. Langar is a Sikh religious food practice that could be important in dietary health promotion. This study explored perceptions of langar, its role in health, readiness and strategies for change and whether Gurdwaras (Sikh place of worship) are able to support change.

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Background: Research on age-progression facial morphing interventions for smoking cessation has not investigated the effect of different instructions for intervention delivery. The objective of this pilot study was to investigate the influence of two instruction types used to deliver the intervention on efficacy of the intervention.

Method: Women were recruited and randomly allocated to an age-progression intervention session with (i) neutral instructions; (ii) instructions designed to reassure; or (iii) a condition that controlled for participant engagement ("control").

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Background: The public health policy "Making Every Contact Count" (MECC) compels healthcare professionals to deliver health behaviour change interventions during routine consultations. As healthcare systems continue their recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 public health emergency, supporting people to modify health behaviours is more important now than when the policy was introduced. The present study aims to: (a) examine changes in healthcare professionals' awareness of, and engagement with the policy over a five-year period, (b) examine the psychosocial drivers associated with delivering behaviour change interventions, and (c) identify targets to increase healthcare professionals' delivery of interventions.

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Background: Mass vaccination against Covid-19 has been recognised as the most effective strategy for overcoming the pandemic emergency and remains crucial in the ongoing efforts to mitigate the impact of the virus. The present study aimed to test the efficacy of an extended Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) model in predicting vaccination intention in three different phases of the pandemic. Understanding how psychological drivers of vaccine acceptance may have changed throughout the pandemic is essential for informing public health strategies and addressing vaccine hesitancy, even in the current post-pandemic context.

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Cancer screening aims to check the body for cancer before symptoms develop. Social norms theory suggests people falsely perceive the attitudes and/or behaviours of similar others to be different from their own and correcting these perceptions can lead to behaviour change. Across two studies, we tested if women underestimate peer levels of cervical screening behaviour and whether a social norms manipulation increases intention to attend cervical cancer screening.

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Background And Purpose: The present research tests whether intention strength moderates intention-health behavior relations and the extent to which this is accounted for by the moderating effects of intention stability, goal priority, and goal conflict.

Methods: In a prospective multi-behavior study, a representative sample of UK adults (N = 503) completed measures of past behavior, intention, intention strength, goal priority, and goal conflict in relation to eight Covid-19 protection behaviors at time 1. Intention and self-reported behavior were assessed at time 2 (2 months later).

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Article Synopsis
  • - This study introduces a new spatial proteogenomic (SPG) assay on the GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler platform, which allows for high-plex analysis of proteins (>100) and RNA (>18,000) from a single tissue sample.
  • - The SPG assay shows high accuracy and reproducibility in analyzing human and mouse tissues, effectively distinguishing RNA and protein expressions in specific cell subpopulations within colorectal and lung cancers.
  • - Examination of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) using the SPG assay reveals distinct differences in protein and RNA profiles between giant cell GBM and typical GBM, emphasizing its potential for detailed spatial analysis of complex tumors.
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Background: Little is known about contemporary lifestyle choices in patients with bladder cancer (BC). These choices include carcinogenic risk factors and could affect fitness to receive treatments.

Objective: To evaluate the contemporary lifestyle choices in BC patients.

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Article Synopsis
  • Stress-related eating is prevalent, yet there's limited research focusing on cortisol's influence in adolescents and young adults.
  • Researchers conducted a study with 123 participants using the Trier Social Stress Test to measure cortisol levels and collected data on daily stress and snack consumption over 14 days.
  • Results showed that daily stress increased snack intake, especially during ego-threatening and academic stress, while cortisol reactivity influenced this relationship, suggesting higher reactivity may decrease stress's effect on eating.
  • Future studies are encouraged to further explore these dynamics and other factors related to stress and eating behaviors in young people.
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Existing research has shown that daily hassles are associated with increases in between-meal snacking, often resulting in the increased consumption of high sweet and high fat foods. However, it is currently unclear whether the presence of daily uplifts may buffer the negative effects of daily hassles on unhealthy eating behaviour. Therefore, the current study explored the main and interactive effects of daily hassles and daily uplifts on snacking behaviours in adults.

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Objective: Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer to occur in women worldwide. In the UK, the NHS cervical screening programme invites eligible individuals to take part in screening every 3-5 years. At present, around 70% of individuals attend screening when invited.

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Background: In line with public health policy, healthcare professionals (HCPs) working in the UK's National Health Service (NHS) are encouraged to deliver opportunistic health behaviour change interventions during routine consultations. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare delivery has been wide-ranging, but little is known about how the pandemic has affected the delivery of health behaviour change interventions. The present study aimed to examine the barriers and enablers to delivering opportunistic behaviour change interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Objectives: Up to 30% of healthcare spending is considered unnecessary and represents systematic waste. While much attention has been given to low-value clinical tests and treatments, much less has focused on identifying low-value safety practices in healthcare settings. With increasing recognition of the problem of "safety clutter" in organizations, it is important to consider deimplementing safety practices that do not benefit patients, to create the time needed to deliver effective, person-centered, and safe care.

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The Stereotype Content Model proposes that social stereotypes broadly exist along two dimensions: warmth and competence. This framework has been used to investigate the contents of stereotypes of gendered groups in a range of contexts. However, it has not been extensively applied to perceptions of pregnant women.

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Background: Self-control is generally defined as the capacity to override impulses and is a robust predictor of health behaviors. This paper integrates trait, reasoned action, and habit approaches to develop and test a mechanistic account of how self-control influences health actions.

Purpose: We tested five potential pathways from self-control to behavior, termed the valuation, prioritization, habituation, translation, and inhibition routes.

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Introduction: Persistent, knee pain is a common cause of disability. Education and exercise treatment are advocated in all clinical guidelines; however, the increasing prevalence of persistent knee pain presents challenges for health services regarding appropriate and scalable delivery of these treatments. Digital technologies may help address this, and this trial will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of two electronic-rehabilitation interventions: 'My Knee UK' and 'Group E-Rehab'.

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Objective: In the UK, approximately 3,200 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year. Regular screening is one of the best ways to prevent cervical cancer from developing, yet screening rates are declining and vary by sociodemographic variables. The present stratified online study aimed to investigate relationships between sociodemographic factors and screening intentions and past behaviour.

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This manuscript overviews recent research on the intention-behavior gap, focusing on moderators of the intention-behavior relationship. The manuscript draws on the concept of intention strength to make two important points. First, strong intentions provide better predictions of behavior, thereby reducing the intention-behavior gap.

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