Association for the Study of Obesity

East of England Obesity Network Partners with ASO

ASOAdmin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:47:51 +0000

The Association for the Study of Obesity is delighted to have been contracted by the Department of Health East of England Public Health Directorate to arrange and promote obesity training events for professionals within the East of England Region.

View and download the full press release at http://www.aso.org.uk/contact-us/press-releases/

Does Your Obesity Research Need Funding?

JohnT — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:51:37 +0000

Tanita Healthy Weight Community Trust Prevent Obesity Award 2012

Since the foundation of the Tanita Healthy Weight Community Trust in 1994, marking the company’s 50^th anniversary, the Trust has invested more than €450,000 into over fifty different research and educational programmes across the medical and academic society. Recipients have been from hospitals, universities, research institutes and health programmes covering a broad spectrum of topics literally spanning every life stage. Many projects have resulted in published articles and all share the common goal of reducing obesity and promoting healthy active living.

Tanita created the world’s first stand-on body fat monitor in 1992 and is now a brand leading manufacturer of the world’s best selling Body Composition Analyser range. The company is supported by a strong medical background and independent scientific validation.

Apply For Funding

Entries will be closed on 30^thJune 2012 and the 6 – 8 winning entries will be published on the Tanita website in September and awarded in October.

Each Grant winner will be awarded up to 500,000 to 1,000,000 Japanese yen (€4,600 to €9,300 depending on exchange rates)

For more Award information and an application form, see: www.tanita-grant.com or visit www.tanita.eu

Which Type of Obesity Surgery is Best?

JohnT — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:14:48 +0000

There are two very commonly performed operations to treat morbid obesity in the UK but it is unclear which is the most effective and provides the greatest benefit for patients and the NHS.
The BY-BAND study led by the University of Bristol and funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme will compare the outcomes of stomach bypass and stomach band operations.
Professor Jane Blazeby, Consultant Upper GI Surgeon in the School of Social and Community Medicine at the University of Bristol, who is leading the study, said: “Obesity is an increasing health problem in the UK, which is predicted to worsen. Current national guidelines recommend that surgery should be considered for morbidly obese people or for those remaining obese after trying other options.
“The BY-BAND study will compare two types of operation, gastric bypass and gastric banding, to find out which one has the greater benefits.”
BY-BAND will compare weight changes over three years between the two types of surgery and test specifically whether better overall quality of life is achieved with bypass surgery.
Due to the way surgery is organised BY-BAND will have a short preliminary phase in two hospitals to work out the best ways to involve patients, surgeons, and other health professionals before including more centres across the country.
The research team plan to study over 700 very over weight patients in a randomised trial. BY-BAND will also document differences in surgical complications, both at the time of surgery and for up to three years, and value for money for the NHS between the operations.
Obese adults who are referred for obesity surgery under current government guidelines can participate in the study. Half of patients who take part will be treated with gastric band surgery and the other half with gastric bypass surgery. Both operations are currently in use and neither operation is new or experimental. The type of operation will be decided by randomisation.
Participants will also be asked to complete a series of questionnaires about their quality of life, and some participants will be interviewed about their experiences of treatment decisions. Researchers will also ask participants to provide two blood samples in addition to the samples they would give as part of their normal care, for future research into obesity.
There will be two centres (Taunton and the University of Southampton) taking part in the trial in phase one and eight centres taking part in phase two. The study will be co-ordinated from the Clinical Trials and Evaluation Unit at the University of Bristol.
The study is expected to start recruitment in April 2012 and will run for approximately eight years, until the last recruited patient is followed-up. The trial will be recruiting patients until 2015 and the findings will be published in 2018.

Please contact joanne.fryer@bristol.ac.uk for further information.

How can we become more physically active? get walking, get fit, get together …

JohnT — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:09:00 +0000

What makes a weight loss programme successful?

JohnT — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:03:36 +0000

Research produced by this year’s ASO Best Practice Award winner, Professor Paul Aveyard, has been published in the British Medical Journal.

Professor Aveyard’s research, the Lighten Up Trial, was designed to test the relative effectiveness of weight management services provided by general practices, pharmacies (NHS), and commercial companies compared with a self directed exercise comparator group.

The Lighten Up study assessed how effectively primary care could deliver weight management services, either one to one in pharmacies or general practice or via groups (the NHS Size Down programme), compared with commercial market leaders (Weight Watchers, Rosemary Conley, and Slimming World); a further group was given a choice of programme and those in a comparator group were given vouchers to attend their local leisure centre. Only 11.5% responded to their general practitioner’s invitation to participate, most of whom were women.

Overall, Lighten Up points towards the superiority of commercial programmes in achieving weight loss. The full BMJ article can be viewed and downloaded below

Professor Aveyard will be presenting at the ASO conference, Lightening the load in Primary Care to be held in London on 28 March 2012.

Lighten Up Trial (484.15 KB pdf)

Scottish Obesity Report Now Available

JohnT — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:02:24 +0000

More than a quarter of adults in Scotland are obese, according to official figures. Statistics from the Scottish Health Survey suggested 27% of people between the ages of 16 and 64 were obese in 2010.

Download the report at www.aso.org.uk//useful-resources/scottish-health-survey-obesity/

Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A call to action on obesity in England

JohnT — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:39:07 +0000

The Department of Health has today published Healthy Lives, Healthy People : A call to action on obesity in England. This sets out a new approach to tackling obesity in England with a need for concerted action across society to achieve a downward trend in excess weight by 2020. In addition to these new national ambitions the key areas covered in the Call to action include:

The importance of action focusing on both children and adults, and on both prevention and treatment;
How a wide range of partners can work together to ensure that people get the right support and information to help them reach and maintain a healthier weight;
How under the new public health system Local Authorities will have a new enhanced role, supported by a ring-fenced budget, and will bring together local partners to provide effective responses for addressing this major issue;
The Government’s commitment to support local areas by making sure they have access to the best possible data and evidence;
A continuing key role for the centre to complement this, for example by leading the Responsibility Deal and national campaigns such as Change4Life; and
A challenge to the food and drink industry to play a key role – alongside Government, NGOs and others – in reducing the population’s calorie intake by 5 billion calories a day.

The document can be found here:

http://www.dh.gov.uk/health/2011/10/call-to-action

The response of the ASO can be found here

Review of NICE Guidance CG43 – Obesity

JohnT — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:49:53 +0000

NICE has published a review consultation document on the possible review of Clinical Guidance 43 – Obesity. Comments from registered stakeholders are invited on the review document between 12 and 23 September. You can view the document at here

Abstracts Invited

JohnT — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:22:31 +0000

ASO has teamed up with the journal Appetite to offer ASO Members the opportunity to submit abstracts for publication in the journal. Details of the initiative are available to download at www.aso.org.uk/awards/abstract submission.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 16 September 2011

Best Practice Award Now Open!

JohnT — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:46:40 +0000

The prestigious ASO Best Practice Award for 2011 is now open for application. The winning application will be presented with the award and a cheque for £250 at the forthcoming ASO conference Diabetes and Obesity to be held in London on 10 November, details elsewhere on this site.

To view the criteria and download the application form go to www.aso.org.uk/awards.

Applications must be submitted by 30 September 2011.