Log in
The impact of the research described, lies in its ability to identify the prevalence and clustering of unhealthy lifestyle behaviours in young adults, and describe the characteristics of the differing lifestyles. Unhealthy behaviours are primary causes of premature morbidity and mortality. Inactivity, smoking, alcohol use and poor diet are the four major behavioural contributors to chronic illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The findings have been used to highlight the powerful influence of these behaviours on health, and also to highlight the particular impact on health created by these behaviours interacting together. These timely findings will aid health professionals to develop appropriate health prevention programmes targeting young adults.
The further development of the UK Physical Activity guidelines in 2010 highlighted the need to consider the emerging research in the area of sedentary behaviour. Prof S. Biddle at Loughborough University, based upon his and the Unit's leading research in this area, was invited to Chair a working group to review and make recommendations regarding the incorporation of guidance on sedentary behaviour into these new national policies. This group, drawing on the original work of Biddle and co-workers, set out clear recommendations for the incorporation of sedentary behaviour into the UK national Physical Activity Guidelines through the `Sedentary Behaviour and Obesity: Review of the Current Scientific Evidence' report (2010).
Physical Activity guidelines in the UK had never included recommendations for sedentary behaviour, until the publication of `Start Active, Stay Active' (2011), as a direct result of the Unit's research.
Negative body image affects 60-70% of children and adults in developed countries and is recognised as a significant public health issue. UWE research has influenced national parliamentary policy debate and advocacy campaigns, including the report of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Body Image. It has also directly shaped the global social mission agenda of Dove, Unilever's largest personal care brand. It has convinced Dove's key business stakeholders of the viability of evidence-based approaches to improving body image in educational settings, and subsequently underpinned Dove's body image education curriculum, which is delivered in more than 20 countries worldwide.
Insufficient levels of physical activity are a major public health challenge. In the 1990s, approaches to meeting the challenge of increasing physical activity (PA) shifted to a focus on the accumulation of activity during daily living and interest in the potential effects of the built environment on lifestyle physical activity. Researchers from the University of Birmingham tested methods to encourage the increased use of stairs, rather than escalators and lifts, with the aim of increasing calorific expenditure during daily life. This research made a major contribution to the evidence base for NICE (UK), as well as CDC (USA), leading to recommendations to use signage as a public health message to increase stair use. Campaigns prepared for the Department of Health (Cataluyna, Spain) were rolled out nationally, with advice currently being extended to worksite campaigns. At a regional level, councils throughout the Midlands have employed the stair use campaigns, as have the police and commercial firms, with Unilever requesting them for use nationally and internationally and an improved campaign rolled out by National Car Parks Ltd.
Reducing youth anti-social behaviour and raising young people's educational aspirations are international priorities. Research carried out by the University of Greenwich has provided the basis for policy development on participation in higher education and has informed policy makers' views about, and practitioners' work on, anti-social behaviour in schools in the UK and more widely. The impact through partnerships with a local authority and a charity are also described, involving use of an assessment toolkit called the Emotion, Behaviour, Aspiration Toolkit (eBAT) to address factors that limit the aspirations and social mobility of young people. The work is located in the university's Research Centre for Children Schools and Families, which has become a centre for research on anti-social behaviour:
http://www2.gre.ac.uk/about/schools/health/research/healthsocial/ccsf.
Research carried out by Professor Susan Michie and colleagues led to the establishment of the NHS Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT) in 2009 to improve the quality of national stop smoking service provision. The team won the Department of Health contract to form the NCSCT which has led to important quality improvements as demonstrated by increases in knowledge and skills of practitioners, and improvements in success rates. It is estimated that to date the NCSCT has been responsible for an additional 7,500 smokers stopping long-term, saving an estimated 6,500 life years at an incremental cost of less than £500 per life year gained.
During the 1990s, LSHTM researchers documented a steep rise in HIV prevalence among young people between the ages of 15 and 24 in eastern and southern Africa. Subsequent trials in Tanzania and Zimbabwe examined the effectiveness of interventions to reduce HIV incidence among this age group. The results, and subsequent reviews, have substantially influenced the HIV policies of international organisations such as UNICEF, UNESCO and WHO, and HIV programmes in individual African countries. In particular, findings on knowledge and attitude change through sexual health education have been widely implemented.
Research at Coventry University has produced innovative approaches to addressing sexual health and wellbeing issues, sexual health promotion and sex education. The research has resulted in:-