The latest news from the Centre for Diet and Activity Research
- TV, internet and computer games associated with poorer GCSE grades
- GoActive trial set for launch
- Build it and they will come? How walking and cycling routes change behaviour
- Public Health Modelling wins grant and award for online cycling tool
- Traffic and Health in Glasgow Study completes data collection
- Job-loss and weight gain – diet and physical activity may not be the reason
- Katie helps kids KickstART public art
- Recent CEDAR publications
- Upcoming talks and seminars
CEDAR in the media
TV, internet and computer games associated with poorer GCSE grades
Each hour per day spent watching TV, using the internet or playing computer games during Year 10 is associated with poorer grades at GCSE at age 16 according to new CEDAR research.
In a study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, researchers also found that pupils doing an extra hour of daily homework and reading performed significantly better than their peers. However, the level of physical activity had no effect on academic performance.
Researchers studied 845 pupils from secondary schools in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, measuring levels of activity and sedentary behaviour at age 14.5 years and then comparing this to their performance in their GCSEs the following year. This data was from the ROOTS study, a study assessing health and wellbeing during adolescence led by the University of Cambridge Department of Psychiatry.
The team found that screen time was associated with total GCSE points achieved. Each hour per day of time spent in front of the TV or online at age 14.5 years was associated with 9.3 fewer GCSE points at age 16 years – the equivalent, for example, of two grades in one subject (for example from a B to a D) or one grade in each of two subjects. Two extra hours was associated with 18 fewer points at GCSE.
Despite finding no significant association between moderate to vigorous physical activity and academic performance, the researchers concluded that engaging in physical activity does not damage a pupil’s academic performance, and it should remain a public health priority both in and out of school.
- Read the full story
- Paper: Revising on the run or studying on the sofa: Prospective associations between physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and exam results in British adolescents. Kirsten Corder et al, IJBNPA.
- Kirsten’s blog about the study in The Conversation.
This story received widespread media coverage, including BBC News, Daily Mail, Independent, Times (£), Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Daily Express and NHS Choices Behind the Headlines among many others. Lead author Kirsten Corder was interviewed on The Today Programme (43.00 and a related discussion at 02.55.00), as well as talking to national BBC and ITV news and a dozen local radio stations across the UK.
GoActive trial set for launch
Dr Kirsten Corder (see story above) has been awarded an NIHR Public Health Research Project Grant for a randomised controlled trial to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the GoActive intervention.
GoActive stands for “Get Others Active” and aims to encourage young people aged 13-14 to try new activities and be physically active more often. This trial will involve approximately 2400 adolescents from 16 secondary schools in the East of England. The trial builds on successful pilot work conducted at CEDAR and the MRC Epidemiology Unit.
“In our research, we’ve asked teenagers how we could help them to be more active,” says Kirsten. “The overwhelming response was that they lacked opportunities to be active in a way that interested them. They wanted more variety and choice about what activities they tried, telling us that the limited range of school sports was putting most of them off being active. We want to test if by offering a range of non-traditional activities we can help teenagers be more active.”
GoActive will use activities from athletics to Zumba, boxing to yoga that young people can do during the school day, at evenings, and at weekends. Young people will be involved as participants, activity leaders and mentors, and GoActive points and prizes will encourage participation.
- More about GoActive at cedar.iph.cam.ac.uk/goactive
- Paper: Development of a universal approach to increase physical activity among adolescents: the GoActive intervention, Kirsten Corder et al, BMJ Open
Build it and they will come?
How new walking and cycling routes change behaviour
A new study published by CEDAR in BMJ Open has found that the influence of better walking and cycling infrastructure on unconscious pathways may be more powerful in driving behaviour change than any explicit conscious change in perceptions of the physical and social environment.
Those who support active travel have long campaigned for better infrastructure, and many local authorities are making changes to urban environments to promote both walking and cycling.
However, few scientific studies have evaluated the effects of changing the environment to provide evidence that designing healthier cities actually does lead to changes in health behaviours. In an environment of limited resources, this isn’t just an academic question: should Councils and campaigners focus on improving infrastructure, or should resources be reserved for campaigns to educate and change perceptions about the benefits of being active through travel?
However, few scientific studies have evaluated the effects of changing the environment to provide evidence that designing healthier cities actually does lead to changes in health behaviours. In an environment of limited resources, this isn’t just an academic question: should Councils and campaigners focus on improving infrastructure, or should resources be reserved for campaigns to educate and change perceptions about the benefits of being active through travel?
The researchers use questionnaire data from adults living within 5 km of new walking and cycling infrastructure in Cardiff, Kenilworth and Southampton, part of the Connect2 initiative run by Sustrans. They found that the large majority of changes in physical activity could be explained by a simple causal pathway driven by the use of the new routes, rather than changes in cognitive perceptions of the environment. This finding adds weight to the idea that behaviour can be promoted by changing environmental cues without explicitly encouraging behaviour, sometimes referred to as ‘nudging’.
- Read the full story
- Paper: Theorising and testing environmental pathways to behaviour change: natural experimental study of the perception and use of new infrastructure to promote walking and cycling in local communities. Jenna Panter, David Ogilvie on behalf of the iConnect consortium, BMJ Open.
Propensity to Cycle
Public Health Modelling wins grant and award nod for online tool
CEDAR’s Public Health Modelling programme has been developing an interactive online tool designed to help local authorities and the third sector prioritise and plan where to invest in cycling. By analysing and modelling local data, the National Propensity to Cycle Tool will show where cycling might be expected to increase the most, as well as what the health and carbon benefits of this would be.
The tool uses information about local populations and geography, together with insight into what influences behaviour change to estimate the current cycling potential within different localities. Users can change various assumptions and data in the tool to test a range of future scenarios. This will allow planners to better target infrastructure and behaviour change interventions where they will have the greatest impact and cost-effectiveness.
Following successful prototype work completed for the UK Department for Transport, the team have been awarded a University of Cambridge internal EPSRC Impact Acceleration grant of to work with Transport for Greater Manchester to further develop the tool. Greater Manchester is seeking to increase cycling to 10% of all trips by 2025, and is investing over £80million in cycling between 2013 and 2018, the largest programme of its kind outside London. More information at www.tfgm.com/cycling
The National Propensity to Cycle Tool was also selected as a Cycle Planning Awards finalist in the category “Best Innovation – use of technology or new technique” and was commended by the judges. Read about the awards here.
- For further information, contact npct@npct.org.uk
Traffic and Health in Glasgow study completes data collection
As part of urban regeneration initiatives, a new five-mile section of the M74 motorway has recently been opened in Glasgow. This ‘natural experiment’ provides an opportunity to evaluate a major change in the urban environment, which may have effects on the health and wellbeing of those living nearby.
Lessons learned in Glasgow will be important across the country and beyond, as there is currently little clear public health evidence to guide decisions about investing in expensive urban regeneration projects of this kind.
The Traffic and Health in Glasgow Study is examining the impact of the M74, and will help inform future policy and planning in other parts of the UK where population growth is anticipated or urban redesign is proposed. The study is evaluating the effects of the motorway using multiple methods of data collection:
- a postal survey of adults living close to the motorway, as well as those living in two matched comparison areas of the city
- a monitoring study in a subset of postal survey participants, using accelerometry and GPS measurement
- qualitative interviews with survey participants to explore their experiences of change.
In July, the study successfully completed data collection. More than 1,300 participants completed the postal survey, with approximately 200 completing the monitoring sub-study and 30 completing qualitative interviews.
The study is a collaboration between CEDAR researchers, the University of Glasgow, the University of Edinburgh and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health.
Job-loss associated with weight gain – but diet and physical activity may not be the reason
Job-loss is associated with a more weight gain in working UK adults, according to new CEDAR research – but changes in smoking, diet and physical activity did not explain the weight gained. However, loss of sleep due to worry may be a factor, and the behavioural and psychosocial impacts of job-loss need to be further explored.
In a new paper published in Social Science and Medicine, CEDAR investigators studied working UK adults from two longitudinal surveys to explore weight change in relation to transitions in employment. The researchers used a population-based cohort study (EPIC-Norfolk) and a longitudinal nationwide panel (British Household Panel Survey).
They found that becoming unemployed was associated with significantly more weight gain compared to adults who either stayed in employment or retired. This association was more pronounced in women than in men. Moreover, the study found that job loss was associated with a sharp and significant increase in sleep-loss, and a deterioration of a number of indicators of psychosocial well-being.
The results strengthen evidence for a causal link between unemployment and higher body weight, and hold implications for the physical and mental health support for those who lose their jobs.
- Read the full story
- Paper: Job-loss and weight gain in British adults: Evidence from two longitudinal studies – Monsivais P et al, Social Science & Medicine
Katie helps kids KickstART public art
This summer, CEDAR Career Development Fellow Dr Katie Morton joined students at Chesterton Community College and artist Zoe Chamberlain for a workshop on creating active landscapes. The workshop is part of a project by KickstART, a public art project seeking to foster community pride and enhance a sense of place in a development of 100 new homes on the site of Cambridge City FC’s grounds in Milton Road.
Students created ideas for an active landscape that will be part of the new housing development. The workshop fused art, sport and design, and students learnt about how active landscapes can help people stay fit and healthy, right on their doorstep.
After working on their designs in the classroom, students got busy in the playground. Using templates, stencils and spray street-chalk, they marked their designs in real size on the ground to see if they would work if they were actually built.
Following the workshop, Zoe is now using the students’ plans to inform her own designs when working with professional landscape architects on the active landscape at Mitchams Park, Cambridge.
- Read more about the KickstART project at cambridgekickstart.com
Katie has also recently been selected to take part in the Royal Society Pairing Scheme in which research scientists are paired with UK parliamentarians and civil servants. The scheme allows scientists and policymakers to get an insight in to each others’ worlds by spending time together in their respective work places. Katie is one of only 30 academics selected, and has been paired with a member of the Health and Safety Executive.
More details about the scheme at https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/pairing-scheme/
Recent CEDAR publications
The following papers have been added to our publications database since the last CEDAR Bulletin. All are Open Access.
General public health
- Exploring equity in uptake of the NHS Health Check and a nested physical activity intervention trial. Attwood S, Morton K, Sutton S. J. Public Health (Oxf).
- Job-loss and weight gain in British adults: Evidence from two longitudinal studies. Pablo Monsivais, Adam Martin, Marc Suhrcke, Nita G. Forouhi, Nicholas J. Wareham. Social Science & Medicine.
Diet
- Associations between Food Outlets around Schools and BMI among Primary Students in England: A Cross-Classified Multi-Level Analysis. Williams J, Scarborough P, Matthews A, Townsend N, Mumtaz L, Burgoine T, Rayner M. PLoS One.
- Determinants of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption in young children: a systematic review. Veena Mazarello Paes, Kathryn Hesketh, Claire O’Malley, Helen Moore, Carolyn Summerbell, Simon Griffin, Esther MF van Sluijs, Ken K Ong, Rajalakshmi Lakshman. Obes Rev.
- Does the importance of dietary costs for fruit and vegetable intake vary by socioeconomic position? Joreintje D. Mackenbach, Soren Brage, Nita G. Forouhi, Simon J. Griffin, Nicholas J. Wareham and Pablo Monsivais. British Journal of Nutrition
- Gender and the double burden of economic and social disadvantages on healthy eating: cross-sectional study of older adults in the EPIC-Norfolk cohort. Annalijn I Conklin, Nita G Forouhi, Paul Surtees, Nicholas J Wareham and Pablo Monsivais. BMC Public Health.
- Local food environment interventions to improve healthy food choice in adults: a systematic review and realist synthesis protocol Tarra L Penney, Helen Elizabeth Brown, Eva R Maguire, Isla Kuhn, Pablo Monsivais. BMJ Open.
- The nutritional content and cost of supermarket ready-meals. Cross-sectional analysis. Remnant J, Adams J, Appetite.
- Prevalence and socio-demographic correlates of time spent cooking by adults in the 2005 UK Time Use Survey. Cross-sectional analysis. Jean Adams & Martin White.
- Studying the consumption and health outcomes of fiscal interventions (taxes and subsidies) on food and beverages in countries of different income classifications; a systematic review. AMAAP Alagiyawanna, Nick Townsend, Oli Mytton, Pete Scarborough, Nia Roberts and Mike Rayner. BMC Public Health
- Supermarket Choice, Shopping Behavior, Socioeconomic Status, and Food Purchases. Pechey R, Monsivais P. Am J Prev Med
Physical Activity
- Barriers and facilitators to physical activity amongst overweight and obese women in an Afro-Caribbean population: A qualitative study. Alvarado M, Murphy MM, Guell C Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act
- Changes in time-segment specific physical activity between ages 10 and 14 years: A longitudinal observational study. Hannah L. Brooke, Andrew J. Atkin, Kirsten Corder, Ulf Ekelund, Esther M.F. van Sluijs. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.
- Development of a universal approach to increase physical activity among adolescents: The GoActive Intervention. Kirsten Corder, Annie Schiff, Jo Kesten, Esther van Sluijs. BMJ Open.
- From the concrete to the intangible: understanding the diverse experiences and impacts of new transport infrastructure. Joanna May Kesten, Cornelia Guell, Simon Cohn and David Ogilvie. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act.
- Revising on the run or studying on the sofa: Prospective associations between physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and exam results in British adolescents Corder K, Atkin AJ, Bamber DJ, Brage S, Dunn VJ, Ekelund U, Owens M, van Sluijs EMF, Goodyer IM. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act.
You can search over 280 CEDAR scientific papers by author, journal, study, title and abstract keywords on our publications database at www.cedar.iph.cam.ac.uk/publications
Upcoming talks and seminars
We have a number of forthcoming talks in our CEDAR / MRC Epidemiology Seminar series.
Details are subject to confirmation. Sign up to for email alerts at www.cedar.iph.cam.ac.uk/news/seminars. See all future events at www.mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk/events
- 19 October, 12:30-1:30pm. Dr Dafna Merom, Physical Activity and Health, University of Western Sydney
Meeting Rooms 1&2, Level 4, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus
Title TBC - 28 October, 12.30 – 1.30pm: Prof Atul Singhal, University College London
Venue & title TBC - 11 November, 12.30 – 1.30pm Dr Janis Baird / Dr Christina Vogel, MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton
Meeting Rooms 1&2, Level 4, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus
Title TBC - 25 November, 12.30 – 1.30pm Dr Audrey de Nazelle, Imperial College London.
Meeting Rooms 1&2, Level 4, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus
Title TBC - 10 December, 11 – 12am, , Dr Derek Yach, The Vitality Institute
Meeting Rooms 1-3, Level 4, Institute of Metabolic Science, Cambridge Biomedical Campus
Title TBC
Other talks at the Cambridge Institute of Public Health www.iph.cam.ac.uk/news/seminars
- Thursday 8 October 2015, 6.00pm, Institute of Public Health Annual Lecture
Dr Julio Frenk, President-Elect, University of Miami; Dean, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
Martin Cohen Lecture Theatre, Li Ka Shing Centre, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute
http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/59265 - Friday 16 October 2015, 1.00 – 2.00pm, Bradford Hill Seminar
Domhnall MacAuley, University of Ulster; Consultant-Associate Editor, Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) and PLOS Medicine.
http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/60127 - Friday 20 November 1:00pm, Bradford Hill Seminar
Professor Mika Salminen, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland
Large Seminar Room, 1st Floor, Cambridge Institute of Public Health
http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/60120 - Friday 5 Feb 2016, 1.00 – 2.00pm, Bradford Hill Seminar
Professor Kevin Fenton, Director of Health and Wellbeing, Public Health England Large Seminar Room, 1st Floor, Institute of Public Health, University Forvie Site, Robinson Way, Cambridge
http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/60415 - Friday 12 February 2016, 1.00 – 2.00pm, Bradford Hill Seminar
Martin White, MRC Epidemiology Unit and CEDAR; Director of the NIHR Public Health Research Programme.
Large seminar room, Cambridge Institute for Public Health
http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/59087
Thursday 14 April 2016, 1.00 – 2.00pm, Bradford Hill Seminar
Dean Dariush Mozaffarian, Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy
http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/60231
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Questions and comments to Oliver Francis: ocf26@cam.ac.uk