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Aims: To discover the reasons behind invited families’ lack of engagement with a family-based childhood obesity programme in a deprived area. Methods: Interviews were conducted with 10 families who were invited to join the programme, but declined to engage. There were two distinct subgroups of participants: those who had no interest in attending the programme and those who showed initial interest yet did not continue attending. The two subgroups were analyzed separately using inductive thematic analysis, and then compared. Results: Analysis identified eight themes overall. For both groups, when the service was perceived to be not needed (‘I didn’t see how that would help’), the families disengaged with it. For both groups, this perception was partly related to the perceived appearance of their children: either that they were not obese (‘I didn’t think my son was overweight’) or that they were growing into their size. There was also a similarity in both groups that they perceived that they were already following healthy lifestyles. In addition, several of the themes arising from the families who had no initial interest were related to the impact of the letter that parents received detailing the result of their child being weighed and measured at school. This angered parents (‘I was disgusted’), and there was a feeling that the approach was too generic. Conclusion: This study identified a number of potential reasons behind why families may decline to engage with a childhood obesity programme in a deprived area. Across all families, if the programme was perceived as not needed, they would disengage. For those who did not engage at all, the initial communication of the child’s body mass index (BMI) is crucial. Recommendations include taking a more personal and tailored approach for the initial communication and shifting the focus of the programmes onto healthier lifestyles.

Purpose. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is associated with adverse health effects. Although the immediate appearance values of tanning seem to outweigh the long-term health consequences, interventions emphasising the negative effects of UV exposure on appearance may be effective in modifying such behaviour. Method. A systematic review assessing the efficacy of appearance-focused interventions in modifying UV exposure and/or protection. Relevant publications were identified from a comprehensive search strategy of 16 electronic bibliographic databases from inception to March 2009, hand searches of six subject relevant journals and references lists of identified articles. Results. Data were extracted from 12 studies that were found to be eligible. Significant effects were found for UV protection behaviour in favour of the interventions. Though the interventions only had moderate success in modifying UV exposure behaviour, plausible explanations were provided. There was no clear pattern to suggest that q...

This paper provides a commentary on several challenges faced by researchers when conducting randomised controlled trials (RCTs) utilising complementary therapies with cancer patients. Several factors, such as research design and recruitment to the intervention are discussed. Examples are drawn from an RCT conducted by the lead author regarding the use of yoga to improve the quality of life of gynaecological cancer patients undergoing treatment for their cancer. This paper gives methodological insights into some of the difficulties experienced when conducting research with cancer patients, and provides a number of recommendations based on the available evidence and practical application of these methods.

We agree with many of the points made by Roland and Everington, but think they missed one of the elephants in the room: public health.[1] Urgent action is needed in key areas including alcohol, mental health, and obesity. We believe there is a growing consensus that public health action …

Objectives There is an assumption in menopause research that attitudes to menopause are influenced by a range of cultural, social and psychological variables, which may in turn affect menopausal experience and symptom reporting. However, many studies draw conclusions about this relationship without explicitly examining the empirical evidence. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review is to examine the relationship between attitudes towards menopause and symptom experience using original research studies. Methods Computerised literature searches were performed with Medline, Web of Knowledge and PubMed databases using ‘menopause’ and ‘attitudes’ as the main search terms. Studies were considered if they included a measure of attitude and a measure of menopausal symptoms, if they were original research studies, and if they examined and reported on the relationship between women's attitudes to menopause and their symptom experience. Results Thirteen studies were included in the review, 1 longitudinal, prospective study and 12 cross-sectional studies. The results of 10 studies supported the view that women with more negative attitudes towards the menopause report more symptoms during this transition and 3 studies found no significant association between these variables. Conclusion Women with more negative attitudes towards the menopause in general report more symptoms during the menopausal transition. However, use of standardised culturally sensitive attitude, and specific symptom, measures are recommended in future prospective studies.