A brief intervention for weight control based on habit-formation theory delivered through primary care: results from a randomised controlled trial

Background: Primary care is the 'first port of call' for weight control advice, creating a need for simple, effective interventions that can be delivered without specialist skills. Ten Top Tips (10TT) is a leaflet based on habit-formation theory that could fill this gap. The aim of the current study was to test the hypothesis that 10TT can achieve significantly greater weight loss over 3 months than ‘usual care’. Methods: A two-arm, individually randomised, controlled trial in primary care. Adults with obesity were identified from 14 primary care providers across England. Patients were randomised to either 10TT or 'usual care' and followed up at 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months. The primary outcome was weight loss at 3 months, assessed by a health professional blinded to group allocation. Difference between arms was assessed using a mixed-effect linear model taking into account the health professionals delivering 10TT, and adjusted for baseline weight. Secondary outcomes included body mass index, waist circumference, the number achieving a 5% weight reduction, clinical markers for potential comorbidities, weight loss over 24 months and basic costs. Results: Five-hundred and thirty-seven participants were randomised to 10TT (n=267) or to ‘usual care' (n=270). Data were available for 389 (72%) participants at 3 months and for 312 (58%) at 24 months. Participants receiving 10TT lost significantly more weight over 3 months than those receiving usual care (mean difference =−0.87kg; 95% confidence interval: −1.47 to −0.27; P=0.004). At 24 months, the 10TT group had maintained their weight loss, but the ‘usual care’ group had lost a similar amount. The basic cost of 10TT was low, that is, around £23 ($32) per participant. Conclusions: The 10TT leaflet delivered through primary care is effective in the short-term and a low-cost option over the longer term. It is the first habit-based intervention to be used in a health service setting and offers a low-intensity alternative to ‘usual care’

Correction to: A brief intervention for weight control based on habit-formation theory delivered through primary care: results from a randomised controlled trial.

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake in Table 1. In the paper the authors report cholesterol as mg dl-1 (Table 1) however, the correct unit should be mmol/l. Glucose should be the same. The authors apologize for the error. The correct Table 1 can be found below. (Table presented.)

Active ageing, pensions and retirement in the UK

The ageing population has led to increasing concerns about pensions and their future sustainability. Much of the dominant policy discourse around ageing and pension provision over the last decade has focussed on postponing retirement and prolonging employment. These measures are central to productive notions of ‘active ageing’. Initially the paper briefly sets out the pension developments in the UK. Then it introduces active ageing and active ageing policy, exploring its implications for UK pension provision. It demonstrates that a more comprehensive active ageing framework, which incorporates a life-course perspective, has the potential to assist the UK to respond to the challenges of an ageing population. In doing so it needs to highlight older people as an economic and social resource, and reduce barriers to older people’s participation in society

Ant navigation: fractional use of the home vector

Home is a special location for many animals, offering shelter from the elements, protection from predation, and a common place for gathering of the same species. Not surprisingly, many species have evolved efficient, robust homing strategies, which are used as part of each and every foraging journey. A basic strategy used by most animals is to take the shortest possible route home by accruing the net distances and directions travelled during foraging, a strategy well known as path integration. This strategy is part of the navigation toolbox of ants occupying different landscapes. However, when there is a visual discrepancy between test and training conditions, the distance travelled by animals relying on the path integrator varies dramatically between species: from 90% of the home vector to an absolute distance of only 50 cm. We here ask what the theoretically optimal balance between PI-driven and landmark-driven navigation should be. In combination with well-established results from optimal search theory, we show analytically that this fractional use of the home vector is an optimal homing strategy under a variety of circumstances. Assuming there is a familiar route that an ant recognizes, theoretically optimal search should always begin at some fraction of the home vector, depending on the region of familiarity. These results are shown to be largely independent of the search algorithm used. Ant species from different habitats appear to have optimized their navigation strategy based on the availability and nature of navigational information content in their environment. Citation: Cheung A, Hiby L, Narendra A (2012) Ant Navigation: Fractional Use of the Home Vector. PLoS ONE 7(11): e50451. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.005045

Solid Supported Reagents in Multi-Step Flow Synthesis.

The frequently overlooked benefits that considerably simplify and enrich our standard of living are most often hinged upon chemical synthesis. From the development of drugs in the ongoing fight against disease to the more aesthetic aspects of society with the preparation of perfumes and cosmetics, synthetic chemistry is the pivotally involved science. Furthermore, the quality and quantity of our food supply relies heavily upon synthesised products, as do almost all aspects of our modern society ranging from paints, pigments and dyestuffs to plastics, polymers and other man-made materials. However, the demands being made on chemists are changing at an unprecedented pace and synthesis, or molecular assembly, must continue to evolve in response to the new challenges and opportunities that arise. Responding to this need for improved productivity and efficiency chemists have started to explore new approaches to compound synthesis. Flow-based synthesis incorporating solid supported reagents and scavengers has emerged as a powerful way of manipulating chemical entities and is envisaged to become a core laboratory technology of the future