1,721,181 research outputs found
Capturing the healthfulness of the in-store environments of United Kingdom supermarket stores over 5 months (January–May 2019)
No full textIntroduction: Numerous environmental factors within supermarkets can influence the healthfulness of food purchases. This research aims to identify the changes in store healthfulness scores and assess the variations by store type and neighborhood deprivation using an adapted Consumer Nutrition Environment tool. Methods: Between January and May 2019, a total of 104 supermarkets in London were surveyed on 1–3 occasions. The adapted Consumer Nutrition Environment tool included data on 9 variables (variety, price, quality, promotions, shelf placement, store placement, nutrition information, healthier alternatives, and single fruit sale) for 11 healthy and 5 less healthy food items. An algorithm was used to create a composite score of in-store healthfulness and to assess inter-rater reliability. Longitudinal changes in overall store healthfulness and individual variables were investigated using multivariable hierarchical mixed models. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the differences by store type and neighborhood deprivation in each month. All analyses were conducted between January and July 2020. Results: The adapted Consumer Nutrition Environment tool showed acceptable inter-rater reliability. Large stores exhibited healthier environments than small stores (p<0.001), with a similar pattern for each of the 9 individual variables. Within large stores, the overall healthfulness score did not change over the study period. Promotions on more healthful items increased in February (p=0.04), and the availability of healthier alternatives for less healthy foods decreased in March (p=0.01). Within small stores, there was a trend toward increasing healthfulness (p<0.001), primarily owing to more promotions on healthy items (p<0.001). There was no difference in overall healthfulness by neighborhood deprivation. Conclusions: The adapted Consumer Nutrition Environment tool is sensitive to longitudinal changes in environmental variables that contribute to store healthfulness. A wider application of this tool could be used to map in-store environments to identify targets for interventions to encourage healthier food purchasing.</p
Participants’ perspectives of being recruited into a randomised trial of a weight loss intervention before colorectal cancer surgery: a qualitative interview study
Full text linkBackground: the period between cancer diagnosis and surgery presents an opportunity for trials to assess the feasibility of behaviour change interventions. However, this can be a worrying time for patients and may hinder recruitment. We describe the perspectives of patients with excess weight awaiting colorectal cancer surgery about their recruitment into a randomised trial of a prehabilitation weight loss intervention.Methods: we interviewed the first 26 participants from the 8 recruitment sites across England in the ‘CARE’ feasibility trial. Participants were randomised into either usual care (n=13) or a low-energy nutritionally-replete total diet replacement programme with weekly remote behavioural support by a dietitian (n=13). The semi-structured interviews occurred shortly after recruitment and the questions focused on participants’ recollections of being recruited into the trial. We analysed data rapidly and then used a mind-mapping technique to develop descriptive themes. Themes were agreed by all co-authors, including a person with lived-experience of colorectal surgery.Results: participants had a mean body mass index (± SD) of 38 kg/m2 (± 6), age of 50 years (± 12), and 42% were female. People who participated in the trial were motivated by the offer of structured weight loss support that could potentially help them improve their surgical outcomes. However, participants also had concerns around the potential unpalatability of the intervention diet and side effects. Positive attitudes of clinicians towards the trial facilitated recruitment but participants were disappointed when they were randomised to usual care due to clinical teams’ overemphasis on the benefits of losing weight.Conclusions: patients were motivated to take part by the prospect of improved surgical outcomes. However, the strong preference to be allocated to the intervention suggests that balanced communication of equipoise is crucial to minimise disappointment from randomisation to usual care and differential dropout from the trial.<br/
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Behavior change for planetary health: design and implementation of social norm interventions to reduce meat consumption
Full text linkCurrent global meat production and consumption patterns present a threat to planetary health. Excessive meat consumption is associated with an increased risk of certain types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and obesity; while meat production is responsible for about 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions, threatens biodiversity, releases pollutants, and contributes to soil erosion. In the United Kingdom, meat consumption would need to decrease by two thirds to improve public health outcomes and to remain within planetary boundaries for stable ecosystems. Behavioral interventions may be an effective strategy to reduce meat consumption, but the empirical evidence for their effectiveness is mixed and limited. In particular, the social aspect of meat consumption has been mostly unaddressed in behavioral research.
This thesis aims to (i) provide a deeper understanding of perceptions of social norms around healthy and sustainable food choices with a particular focus on meat consumption, (ii) explore the role of demographic characteristics such as ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic position on these perceptions, and (iii) design and implement dynamic descriptive social norm messaging interventions to reduce meat consumption in real-world settings with robust study designs. The studies address gaps in the literature by (i) conducting the first nationally representative (in terms of age, gender, and socioeconomic status) survey of three largest ethnic groups in the United Kingdom for meat consumption behaviors, attitudes and norms and (ii) running the first randomized controlled trial testing dynamic descriptive social norms to reduce meat consumption in a real-world setting.
The pre-registered, robust, multi-site field interventions forming a part of this thesis found no evidence that dynamic descriptive social norm messaging interventions are effective in reducing meat consumption and/or increasing plant-based food consumption. The nationally representative online surveys found that perceptions and influence of social norms around meat consumption are moderated by the social proximity of the referent group and by the demographic characteristics of the individual. These findings suggest that while social norms are an important influence in meat consumption, interventions that aim to leverage dynamic descriptive social norms might be constrained by their inability to credibly refer to a socially close and relevant referent group. Additionally, the incongruency between the dynamic normative messages that communicate that there is a trend towards reductions in meat consumption and the observable norm of continued meat consumption present in most food purchasing settings may contribute to the ineffectiveness of these messages.
Multimodal interventions that combine dynamic normative messages with microenvironmental changes such as increasing the availability of plant-based options or making them the default may help counter this incongruency and increase the effectiveness of dynamic normative messages. Moreover, if stronger trends of meat reduction emerge over time and become more clearly observable in food purchasing settings, dynamic normative messages can become more credible and effective. Meanwhile, at present, the evidence from this thesis indicate that efforts may need to be redirected to look beyond dynamic descriptive social norm interventions to drive the necessary changes in meat consumption to mitigate climate change and alleviate pressures in the public healthcare system caused by non-communicable diseases
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Self-weighing and self-regulation for weight loss
Full text linkIntentional weight loss requires self-regulation to override externally-driven behaviours. Self-regulation theory hypothesises that individuals automatically self-regulate when they find that their current state is not in line with their goals. In the context of weight management, this process involves self-weighing, contextualising weight measurements, reflecting on and evaluating previous behaviour, and planning and performing weight loss actions. The research presented in this thesis explored barriers to and benefits of self-weighing and self-regulation for weight loss in adults with overweight or obesity. In a think-aloud study, I investigated the extent to which self-regulation occurs naturally. I found that action planning was performed rarely, but was a significant predictor of weight loss. Individuals found self-weighing useful, but fluctuations hindered the interpretation of weight changes. With an observational analysis, I then explored why individuals trying to lose weight stop weighing themselves. I found individuals concurrently reduced their physical activity and gained weight preceding a stop in weight monitoring, suggesting that individuals lost motivation to lose weight and struggled receiving negative weight feedback. An app market review explored user reviews of weight tracking apps, finding that users gained motivation from receiving (graphical) feedback on their progress. Based on the findings from these three studies, I developed a weight loss intervention guiding individuals through the complete self-regulation process, whilst addressing several identified barriers. To support individuals` interpretation of weight changes, I employed daily weighing and weight tracking, but weekly reflection on weight changes. The intervention additionally encouraged individuals to experiment with weight loss actions on a daily basis, and evaluate their usefulness once a week. A randomised controlled trial (RCT) tested the early effectiveness of the intervention against daily weighing only, finding a significant weight loss effect at 8-week follow-up (-3.20kg, 95% CI=-4.49, -1.92). Participants found the intervention acceptable and feasible. Altogether, my research suggests that self-regulation can be an effective weight loss strategy when individuals are guided through it, supporting further research in this area. The long-term effectiveness of the intervention warrants further testing in a larger RCT
- …
