Centre for Reviews and Dissemination
Society for Social Medicine Annual Meeting
Posted on 13 September 2019
In one of the presentations she discussed results of a systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions that target multiple risk behaviours in overweight and obese adults. This work was undertaken as part of the Public Health Research Consortium funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Policy Research Programme. The review found that studies were limited in their approach; none of them targeted behaviours other than diet and physical activity and few included intervention components other than education, training and enablement. There were small improvements in some behavioural outcomes but effects declined over time.
She also presented the findings of a qualitative study of systematic review use by public health professionals in English local authorities. The research, funded by CRD, involved interviews with 14 senior public health professionals in Yorkshire and the Humber local authorities. Interviews explored the role and value of systematic reviews both in decision-making and outside of the decision-making process.