Category / open access

Management of male obesity: The qualitative evidence (BMJ Open)

open access, Publishing

BMJ Open 2015Yesterday BMJ Open published our latest article on the weight management in obese men, under the title A qualitative evidence synthesis on the management of male obesity.[1]  To the best of our knowledge, this is the first synthesis of qualitative studies investigating men’s perceptions and experiences of weight management services.  The interdisciplinary study was conducted between the three research centres at the University of Aberdeen, namely the Health Services Research Unit (HSRU), the Health Economics Research Unit (HERU) and the Rowett Institute of Health & Nutrition, the University of Stirling’s NMAHP Research Unit, the University of Edinburgh’s Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research & Policy (SCPHRP) and Bournemouth University.

Studies published between 1990 and 2012 reporting qualitative research with obese men, or obese men in contrast to obese women and lifestyle or drug weight management were included. The studies included men aged 16 years or over, with no upper age limit, with a mean or median body mass index of 30 kg/m2 in all settings. In total 22 studies were identified.

Health concerns and the perception that certain programmes had ‘worked’ for other men were the key factors that motivated men to engage with weight management programmes. Barriers to engagement and adherence with programmes included: men not problematizing their weight until labelled ‘obese’; a lack of support for new food choices by friends and family, and reluctance to undertake extreme dieting. Retaining some autonomy over what is eaten; flexibility about treats and alcohol, and a focus on physical activity were attractive features of programmes. Group interventions, humour and social support facilitated attendance and adherence. Men were motivated to attend programmes in settings that were convenient, non-threatening and congruent with their masculine identities, but men were seldom involved in programme design.

The paper concluded that men’s perspectives and preferences within the wider context of family, work and pleasure should be sought when designing weight management services. Qualitative research is needed with men to inform all aspects of intervention design, including the setting, optimal recruitment processes and strategies to minimise attrition.  This paper grew out of the larger ROMEO study which was published in our full HTA (Health Technology Assessment) report, which is also freely available on line, click here! [2]

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

Reference:

  1. Archibald, D., Douglas, F., Hoddinott, P., van Teijlingen, E., Stewart, F., Robertson, C., Boyers, D., Avenell, A. (2015) A qualitative evidence synthesis on the management of male obesity. BMJ Open 5: e008372. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008372 http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/10/e008372.full.pdf+html
  2. Robertson, C., Archibald, D., Avenell, A., Douglas, F., Hoddinott, P., van Teijlingen, E., Boyers, D., Stewart, F., Boachie, C., Fioratou, E., Wilkins, D., Street, T., Carroll, P., Fowler, C. (2014) Systematic reviews of & integrated report on the quantitative, qualitative & economic evidence base for the management of obesity in men. Health Technology Assessment 18(35): 1-424.  http://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/118180/FullReport-hta18350.pdf

Mock REF – depositing your research outputs: BURO UPDATE

BRIAN, open access, REF Subjects, Research assessment

The first internal Research Excellence Framework (REF) preparation exercise invites academic colleagues to submit one to four outputs (published since 1 January 2014), which will be reviewed by a panel of internal expert reviewers.  You can find the Individual Outputs Nomination Form here.

Where possible all nominated outputs (specifically journal articles and conference contribution with ISSN) should be made available Open Access, by uploading them to the institutional repository Bournemouth University Research Online (BURO) via BRIAN.  The SHERPA RoMEO website will help you to upload the correct open access version of your work.  You will need to provide the BURO web link (e.g. http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/xxxxx) for each output in the nomination form.

Please note: during this short period of increased levels of deposit the BURO Editorial Team may take a little longer than usual to make your research open access and respond to any queries about your outputs. In recognition of this the online nomination form provides an option to indicate that you have submitted the your full text to BURO via BRIAN even if you are unable to provide a BURO web link for each of your outputs at the time of form completion.

Looking ahead you should aim to make your research outputs open access as an integral part of you publication process and deposit your full text within 3 months of acceptance.

For more guidance about the mock REF:

http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/ref/mock-ref-internal-light-touch-review-exercise-autumn-2015/

Congratulations to CMMPH Professor Edwin van Teijlingen on his publication !

Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, open access, Research Ethics

Congratulations to CMMPH Professor Edwin van Teijlingen on his latest publication about why researchers do not always seek ethical permission for health research conducted in low income countries. The authors in this paper have identified and explained five possible reasons; a) approval not needed: b) not familiar with the ethics committee: c) applying the wrethicsong committee; d) resource constraints; and e) assumption that non-clinical research are exempted, which are of course overlap and interact each other, for not applying ethical approval in low income countries. They have also provided examples of ethical approval taken from other countries than the host countries and further go on to stress that junior researchers and students should be encouraged to be familiar with research ethical approval. In their paper, they encourage journal editors and peer reviewers to ensure ethical approval beinProfessor Edwin and Professor Padamg granted for manuscripts based on empirical studies. This paper was co-authored by BU visiting faculty Professor Padam Simkhada and recently published in  Nepal Journal of Epidemiology. The paper is freely available through the journal’s website http://nepjol.info/index.php/NJE/issue/view/919

Reference:

van Teijlingen E, Simkhada P. Failure to apply for ethical approval for health studies in low-income countries. Nepal J Epidemiol. 2015;5(3); 511-515

 

Pramod R Regmi, PhD

Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Faculty of Health and Social Science

Nominate your outputs now for the mock REF internal review

BRIAN, open access, Publishing, Research assessment

The first internal Research Excellence Framework (REF) preparation exercise is now taking place. Academic staff are invited to submit from one to four outputs (published since 1 January 2014) and these will be reviewed by a panel of internal expert reviewers.

The review exercise is open to all academic staff and if you wish to be considered for the review and have not yet nominated your outputs, please do so through this link as soon as possible:

https://bournemouth.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/mock-ref-light-touch-internal-review-individual-outputs

The nomination form will close on 19th October 2015.

Refer to this blog post for more info:

http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/ref/mock-ref-internal-light-touch-review-exercise-autumn-2015/

DROP IN – Mock REF: Be in it to win it!

BRIAN, open access, Publishing

hurdle

Emma Crowley from Library services will be holding a drop-in session to support academic colleagues in submitting their open access outputs to BURO via BRIAN ahead of the Mock REF submission deadline.

  • When: Monday 12-10-2015
  • Time: 10:00-11:00
  • Location: S102

Please feel free to bring your digital outputs with you so they can be submitted at the session.