Healthcare professional papers
Are healthcare professionals delivering opportunistic behaviour change interventions? A multi-professional survey of engagement with public health policy
2018
In this study we look conduct a large survey on front line health care professionals in the UK to determine the extent to which they deliver opportunistic health interventions (e.g., mentioning weight loss, smoking etc. in appointments).
31% had heard of the national policy of delivering opportunistic health interventions (making every contact count) but they thought this would be useful to do in 55% of their consultations. However, they only actually did this 50% of the time when they thought it was neede
Are interventions delivered by healthcare professionals effective for weight management? A systematic review of systematic reviews.
Unpublished
We identified all the reviews that reported randomised controlled trials of healthcare professional delivered weight management interventions.
We found that healthcare professional weight loss interventions are effective at managing weight for up to six months.
The most effective healthcare professional weight loss interventions are conducted by nurses (but not as part of a multi-disciplinary team), run for up to 6 months and include specified behaviour change techniques.
Healthcare professional weight loss interventions are most effective for women, non-Caucasians and people aged between 40 and 60 years.
The evidence is inconclusive for healthcare professional delivered weight gain interventions.
“It’s difficult, I think it’s complicated”: Barriers and enablers to health professionals providing opportunistic behaviour change interventions.
2019
We interviewed healthcare professionals about their use of the UK government initiative "Making Every Contact Count" (i.e., asking people about their lifestyle and helping them to change at medical appointments) and what helped and what prevented them from using it.
They were positive about the initiative but didn't always feel capable of using it and didn't always feel it was appropriate. They were more likely to use the initiative in one to one settings.
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