Consumer segmentation with Indian cuisine and acceptability of healthier options: findings from the Healthy Takeaways project in Lincolnshire (Part II)

ABSTRAC

Exploring the possibilities of transforming Indian cuisine: findings from the Healthy Takeaways project in Lincolnshire (Part I)

ABSTRAC

A qualitative evaluation of a regional obesity prevention programme

ABSTRAC

The importance of parents and teachers as stakeholders in school-based healthy eating programs

Schools have a crucial role for promoting and establishing healthy behaviors early in the life-course. In recent years, a substantial effort and resources have been invested in attempts to change the 'food culture' in schools in westernized societies. Large school-based programs which promote healthy eating often utilize an ecological model for instigating behavior change amongst school children. An ecological model is a set of comprehensive intervention strategies that target a multitude of factors which influence the eating practices of children in the school setting. The cultural issues that necessitate these healthy eating programs mean that interventions are not without challenges to their application and effectiveness particularly as they rely on collaboration between stakeholders: teachers, parents, public health practitioners, policy makers and more. The stakeholder input and relations are key parts of planning, implementing and evaluating complex health promotion and education programs in schools. This commentary will outline the importance of considering both teachers and parents as influencing agents or 'enablers' in the process of creating change in this context. Parental perceptions and teachers’ insights are critical for underpinning intervention feasibility, acceptability and performance. Their perceptions and understandings can provide ground-level and highly applicable expertise and importantly motivate children in the school environment. The philosophical principles behind parent and teacher integration into formal program evaluation are discussed, providing a theoretical basis for program evaluation. Recommendations are made for policy makers, researchers and professional evaluation experts’ to consider and integrate these stakeholders in future programs

How TikTok served as a platform for young people to share and cope with lived COVID-19 experiences

The short-video app TikTok saw a large increase in usage during the COVID-19 lockdown because it provided entertainment, distraction, and social interaction based on video content engagement. We present results from an interview study with 28 U.S. TikTok users on how they shared and engaged with lived pandemic experiences on TikTok to cope with and socialize after the U.S. imposed its first lockdown. Participants had already established TikTok as a peer community platform on which sharing lived experiences felt appropriate. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, participants started to look for TikTok videos of shared lived pandemic experiences to interact with others when physical interaction was made impossible. We find that TikTok videos facilitated communication and parasocial interaction based on known audiovisual styles. Participants were able to communicate through video creation based on shared ways of presenting short-video content during COVID-19 physical distancing

An evaluation of Lincolnshire Sports’ ‘Workplace Challenge’ physical activity programme

This report presents an evaluation of the Workplace Challenge, a County Sport Partnership led physical activity programme which utilises a website designed to engage people from workplaces in physical activity. The Workplace Challenge operated within the geographical boundary of Lincolnshire and thus targeted workplaces within this region. The overarching aim of the Workplace Challenge was to enact culture change within organisations in terms of employees’ physical activity habits. Methods A methods-driven, Programme Evaluation model was adopted which utilised qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. Qualitative data was obtained from three case studies of different groups engaged in the Workplace Challenge: A workplace from the private sector, a workplace from the public sector, and individual participants who took part in the programme but were either not associated to a workplace or were the sole representative from their workplace. Purposive samples of participants were selected from each case study who completed a semi structured interview regarding the programme, with results analysed via thematic analysis to highlight common themes. Quantitative analysis was conducted utilising the information stored on the Workplace Challenge website and using a computer script developed with MATLAB®, (MathWorks, Massachusetts, USA). Key Findings Key qualitative findings related to the social networks and relationships which operated during the programme and how these influenced programme delivery and uptake. The presence of a key programme driver within a workplace appeared crucial to the successful delivery of the programme; ensuring employees were informed, motivated and connected throughout the programme. Team bonding and intra-workplace competition were prominent outcomes of the programme, with competition motivating increases in physical activity levels amongst many individuals. Feelings of isolation were also apparent from individuals engaged in the programme who felt unconnected to a wider team, as well as negative feelings which stemmed from an individual comparing their physical captivity levels to a more active peer. With reference to the Workplace Challenge programme, responses indicated that the active transport element of the programme was unknown by many individuals, as well as the fact the programme website was staying live after the completion of the challenge. There also existed ambiguity over how to classify exercise intensity on the Workplace Challenge website. Key quantitative findings indicated the varied level of engagement which was apparent from individuals involved in the programme, with a large range of website activity entries being recorded and significant variations in durations of activity completed. The average number of modes of activity completed per participant was low indicating that individuals preferred to undertake a few chosen activities as opposed to the programme encouraging new activity forms

Virtual sports governance: a figurational analysis of social network development and transformation during the ‘Workplace Challenge’ online programme

County Sports Partnerships (CSPs) epitomise the change from a government to governance approach in UK sports provision as their operation relies upon building networks and partnerships. This study evaluated a CSP led physical activity programme in the East of England entitled the ‘Workplace Challenge’ (WPC). The WPC utilises a website designed to engage people from workplaces in physical activity. Employees self-record their physical activity over an eight week period, with points awarded on the programme website for activity completed. The programme seeks to promote a peer-challenge culture with the provision of online leader boards and an interactive virtual platform. A figurational framework was employed to investigate how networks of real and virtual relationships operating at all levels of service delivery influenced programme uptake, participant engagement and programme efficacy. Interviews and social network analysis investigated the reach and uptake of the programme throughout these networks. The notion that humans should be considered interdependent plurals existing in fluid and dynamic power networks, or figurations, was principally applied in order to uncover how the messages promoted in the WPC were propagated, transformed or resisted by participants through both virtual and face-to-face networks of relationships. Findings indicated that embodied social relationships within workplaces created a competitive atmosphere, which motivated increases in physical activity and strong programme engagement. Where participants relied upon ‘virtual’ relationships with other participants the programme had weaker uptake and reduced influence on physical activity levels, indicating the importance of peer support and the power of peer observation on physical activity choices

Dynamics of salt marsh margins are related to their 3-dimensional

The three-dimensional configuration of sedimentary landforms in intertidal environments represents a major control on regional hydrodynamics. It modulates the location and magnitude of forces exerted by tidal currents and waves on the landform itself and on engineered infrastructure such as sea walls or coastal defences. Furthermore, the effect is reflexive with the landforms representing an integrated, long-term response to the forces exerted on them. There is a strong reciprocal linkage between form and process (morphodynamics) in the coastal zone which is significantly lagged and poorly understood in the case of cohesive, vegetated sediments in the intertidal zone. A method is presented that links the geometric properties of the tidal at-saltmarsh interface to the history and potential future evolution of that interface. A novel quantitative classification scheme that is capable of separating marsh margins based on their functional form is developed and is applied to demonstrate that relationships exist between landform configuration and morphological evolution across a regional extent. This provides evidence of a spatially variable balance between self-organised and external controls on morphodynamic evolution and the first quantitative basis for a quick assessment procedure for likely future dynamism.Foreshore Assessment using Space Technology (FAST) EU 7th Framework Programme FP7-SPACE-2013-1 The Isaac Newton Trust

Did young voters turn out in droves for Corbyn? The myth of the 2017 youthquake election

That hordes of previously disengaged young voters turned out to support Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 election has become something of an assumed fact. But the assumption has been largely based on anecdotes. Chris Prosser, Ed Fieldhouse, Jane Green, Jonathan Mellon, and Geoff Evans use the British Election Study face-to-face survey to examine the claim