PhD Student

Course start: October 2020

Supervisor: Professor Angel Chater
Second Supervisor: Dr Julia Zakrzewski-Fruer

Working thesis title

Behaviour Change Techniques and Training for Managing and Treating Obesity

Abstract

The continually increasing prevalence of obesity causes phenomenal strain on public health systems and significantly raises the risks towards mortality, morbidity and a multitude of chronic diseases which can have detrimental impacts on health (Lobstein, 2011; Berthoud & Klein, 2017). Healthcare professionals and providers are quintessentially placed to identify, facilitate, and support weight management, particularly for individuals who are living with obesity due to the frequency and ease of patient to professional interaction and contact (Fruh, 2017; Keyworth et al. 2018). As a result, it is imperative that health professionals are well equipped and feel comfortable in raising the topic of weight, completing a COM-B analysis, and providing appropriate opportunistic interventions for patients who are living with obesity (Dietz et al. 2015). A minimal amount of previous literature has explored health professionals raising the topic of weight with adults and their perspectives and the implications this has on practice and interventions; however, this previous research does not explicitly relate any findings to or discuss COM-B analysis (Blackburn et al. 2015; Gray et al. 2018). In contrast, the previous literature all appears to advocate additional training for health professionals, with the focus being towards obesity and behaviour change (Fillingham et al. 2014; Chisholm et al. 2016). Consequently, it is essential that the perspectives and practices of healthcare professionals on raising the topic, conducting a COM-B assessment, providing opportunistic and appropriate interventions and training are investigated in order to create effective obesity behaviour change training.

Research Aims

To assess and improve the capability, opportunity, and motivation of health professionals who encounter patients living with obesity, enabling them to comfortably and confidently:

• Raise the topic of weight and communicate with patients.
• Complete a COM-B assessment for patients.
• Provide appropriate, opportunistic advice and support.
• Refer and signpost to appropriate services.

Get involved

I welcome any individuals who are living with obesity or health professionals currently working with individuals living with obesity and are interested in participating in any of my studies to contact me.

About me

After attaining a level 3 in Personal Training and completing a foundation degree in Health and Fitness at the University of Northampton in 2019 whilst working as a personal trainer, I went on to complete my third year at the University of Bedfordshire to graduate in 2020 with a BSc in Sport and Exercise Science. My dissertation led me to completing a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the effectiveness of community-based weight management programmes. This topic is also closely related to my job role as an activity leader and weight management practitioner at MoreLife. Throughout my final year at undergraduate and my first year working with MoreLife, my interest in the area of obesity and weight management grew, which led to me intending to research further into behaviour change and obesity. As a result of this, I decided to embark on a PhD focussing on the behaviour change techniques and training for health professionals working with individuals living with obesity.

Contact information

E: jamie.whitehall@study.beds.ac.uk
Twitter: @whitehall_jamie
LinkedIn: Jamie Whitehall