Informing the Hertfordshire Food Poverty Needs Assessment: Household Experiences of Food Poverty and Support Service Provision in Hertfordshire

Although the proportion of residents at a higher risk of experiencing food poverty in Hertfordshire is below the national average (15.8%), 10.3 per cent of residents are still at a high risk. ‘Food poverty’ is a visible symptom and consequence of poverty. The aim of this research is to contribute an understanding of residents’ experiences of food poverty, their experiences of accessing support services and to determine what gaps there are in service provision in Hertfordshire. This research was undertaken to inform the Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) ‘Food Poverty Needs Assessment’ being undertaken to inform policy and practice across Hertfordshire (HCC, 2021). Although this work is not directly exploring the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of people experiencing food poverty in the UK has increased since its onset, so this work is timely. Twenty-three Hertfordshire residents completed a survey and five residents took part in an in-depth semi-structured interview. Three focus groups were undertaken with 15 service providers from organisations providing support for those experiencing food poverty across Hertfordshire. Residents identified multiple factors that contributed to their experience of food poverty, including physical and/or mental health issues, the high cost of housing, unemployment or furlough during the pandemic, low pay and/or insecure work, debt and Universal Credit. These factors were often cumulative. Households described how they used numerous strategies in response and often prioritised paying housing costs and household utilities. Food budgets were then determined by the little money left over. Other strategies included exhaustive budgeting, pre-planning purchases and meals, shopping in multiple outlets and using cheaper ‘budget’ supermarkets. For households with children, parents sometimes skipped meals and/or bought cheaper poorer quality food (or ‘junk food’) to ensure that their children were not hungry. Informal social networks (such as family and friends) provided financial and practical support including childcare. Formal support included food aid from food banks as well as guidance and advice from services such as Herts Help, Citizens Advice and the Money Advice Unit. Free school meals were also seen as vital to families with children. Residents were largely positive about their experiences of accessing support services. However, they often struggled to know what support was available to them or how to access support in the first instance. They recommended better availability of information about what support is available and that this information should not just be accessible via the internet. Focus groups suggested that the root cause of food poverty was poverty itself, caused by insufficient income. They stated that local responses to the complexities of food poverty should be multiagency and there were good examples of existing partnership working between organisations. Service providers explained how the demand for services had increased during the COVID-19 pandemic with food banks noting changes in the demographic profile of service users. There was consensus that a countywide response to food poverty in Hertfordshire should be informed by public health approaches that prioritise prevention. There was widespread agreement for the need to map the existing services operating across Hertfordshire to identify gaps in provision and ensure residents are able to access the most appropriate support available to them and that organisations can work collaboratively as efficiently as possible. Service providers also recommended a need for strategic leadership, establishment of outcomes and priority setting for food poverty work across Hertfordshire

Addressing Obesity in Stevenage, Hertfordshire: A Consultation with Young People

Public Health England have identified that almost a quarter of children are overweight when they start primary school, which increases to a third when they leave in year 6 aged 10-11 years. This has implications for young peoples’ physical and mental health and also later in adult life. The newly launched NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) East of England is focusing on selected areas of health inequality and this includes neighbourhoods in Stevenage, Hertfordshire which have high rates of childhood obesity. In order to find out what young people think about these issues, Hertfordshire County Council and the University of Hertfordshire carried out a collaborative project in 2019. Hertfordshire County Council have adopted a Whole Systems approach to obesity and are keen to engage with young people in order to prioritise issues identified by them. The importance of ‘involving’ young people in shaping services has been widely documented. Two researchers met twice with 56 young people (from a range of schools) aged 16 years who were attending the National Citizen Service (NCS) scheme at a school in Stevenage in the summer holidays. A number of involvement activities were carried out during the sessions. The young people, with help from the researchers, facilitated their own informal discussion groups, using maps, flips charts, post-it notes and an anonymous suggestion box. The first session did not mention obesity but allowed open discussion about what it was like to live in Stevenage and the second session focussed more on the issue of ‘obesity and weight’. The young people were encouraged to find their own solutions and imagine if they “were in charge”. The four main themes that came from the sessions were; affordability, crime and anti-social behaviour, transport and places to go and eat. A number of solutions were suggested by the young people which included; healthy environment (e.g. cycle paths, street lights, regulation of shops), community approach (e.g. more affordable sports activities), schools (e.g. raise awareness, promote sport), focus on young people (e.g. activities for young people and healthy affordable eating outlets) and helping people maintain a healthy weight. The priorities identified by local young people and the wider issues they raised are important to take into consideration when shaping any intervention or public health initiative, especially when considering the wider determinants of health. Listening to the issues and solutions and using the language of young people is vital and young people should be included in co-designing any services that are aimed at them. Involving local young people who know an area and who can identify important issues is vital for any successful public health intervention

The impact of covid-19 and the resulting mitigation measures on food and eating in the East of England: Interim report

Measures to control the spread of Covid-19 are impacting food systems, household food practices, and organisations supporting vulnerable people in the UK. We report here on the interim findings of an ongoing qualitative study which aims to understand how Covid-19 is affecting local food systems, household food practices and efforts to mitigate dietary health inequalities in the East of England. The findings presented are from the first 35 interviews carried out with households (n=24) and those involved in community and local authority schemes (n=11) providing assistance in relation to food. Our findings so far suggest that Covid-19 and the mitigation measures put in place from March 2020 (e.g. ‘lockdown’ and social distancing) are serving to amplify existing dietary health inequalities. Those who are relatively more secure financially have been able to spend time addressing and improving their dietary health, whereas those struggling financially or in economic hardship have experienced their diets worsening. Older people living alone and/or on low incomes have had to contend with difficulties in accessing food and a lack of opportunities to eat socially. Those with physical impairments and limited mobility sometimes find busy supermarkets potentially hostile and stressful environments and this has been amplified by the instore changes related to Covid-19. Online food shopping has been a particular challenge reported by participants. For some, the Covid-19 mitigation measures meant they were shopping online for the first time. Participants expressed frustration at the difficulty in securing a delivery slot and deliveries arriving with missing products and/or unsuitable substitutions. There was a general perception that food prices have risen since Covid-19 mitigation measures, especially in supermarkets. Participants suggested this was due to a reduction in the availability of food products and special offers. Across the East of England, locally organised efforts to support and feed people included setting up community funds to supplement the income of organisations working with vulnerable people and with local businesses and partners to organise food supplies. While the Government food parcel scheme focused on feeding those in the shielding category, local authorities worked on supplementing the scheme, where required, by helping to feed and support other vulnerable groups in the community. Food banks have seen a rapid increase in need for their services and have also had to change their operating practices. Some have had to close or change venue and operating hours to accommodate changes to their volunteer base. While media coverage during the pandemic has reported a reduction in donations to foodbanks, some of our participants reported that donations to food banks have increased. This has created the need for increased storage capacity and processing facilities. Despite ongoing difficulties, local groups across the region have devised, adapted and operated a range of schemes to support and feed vulnerable people, tailored to the needs of local residents. Some of the feedback and recommendations provided by households and organisations thus far are summarised at the end of this interim report. The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on food and eating practices across the East of England in a range of ways. While some groups have been merely inconvenienced, others have had to manage with less healthy food and less money to buy food. The potential of the pandemic to amplify existing dietary health inequalities is a theme that we will continue to explore and report on as our research progresses into 2021

Changes to household food shopping practices during the COVID-19 restrictions: Evidence from the East of England

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Measures to control the spread of COVID-19 have changed the way we shop for food and interact with food environments. This qualitative study explored food shopping practices in the East of England, a large diverse region including coastal, urban and rural settings. In 2020/2021 we interviewed 38 people living in the region and 27 professionals and volunteers providing local support around dietary health. Participants reported disruption to supermarket shopping routines; moving to online shopping; and increased reliance on local stores. COVID-19 has impacted disproportionately upon lower-income households and neighbourhoods. The longer-term implications for dietary health inequalities must be investigated.Peer reviewe

Piloting the objective measurement of eating weight and speed at a population scale: a nested study within the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children [version 3; peer review: 2 approved]

Background: Effective measurement and adaption of eating behaviours (e.g., eating speed) may improve weight loss and weight over time. We assessed whether the Mandometer, a portable weighing scale connected to a computer that generates a graph of food removal rate from the plate to which it is connected, together with photo-imaging of food, might prove a less intensive and more economical approach to measuring eating behaviours at large scale. Methods: We deployed the Mandometer in the home environment to measure main meals over three days of 95 21-year-old participants of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. We used multi-level models to describe food weight and eating speed and, as exemplar analyses, examined the relationship of eating behaviours with body mass index (BMI), dietary composition (fat content) and genotypic variation (the FTO rs9939609 variant). Using this pilot data, we calculated the sample size required to detect differences in food weight and eating speed between groups of an exposure variable. Results: All participants were able to use the Mandometer effectively after brief training. In exemplar analyses, evidence suggested that obese participants consumed more food than those of "normal" weight (i.e., BMI 19 to <25 kg/m 2) and that A/A FTO homozygotes (an indicator of higher weight) ate at a faster rate compared to T/T homozygotes. There was also some evidence that those with a high-fat diet consumed less food than those with a low-fat diet, but little evidence that individuals with medium- or high-fat diets ate faster. Conclusions: We demonstrated the potential for assessing eating weight and speed in a short-term home setting and combining this with information in a research setting. This study may offer the opportunity to design interventions tailored for at-risk eating behaviours, offering advantages over the “one size fits all” approach of current failing obesity interventions

Patterns of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption amongst young people aged 13–15 years during the school day in Scotland

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Background There is currently little research regarding sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption patterns of young people though adolescents are thought to be frequent consumers of these drinks. There is no research regarding the other foods and drinks consumed alongside SSBs by young people. The aim of this paper is to explore the patterns of SSB purchase and consumption amongst young people aged 13–15 years. Methods A purchasing recall questionnaire (PRQ) was administered online in seven case study schools with 535 young people aged 13–15 years. Nutrient composition (kilocalories, fat, saturated fat, sodium and sugar) was also calculated for food/drink purchases. Chi-Square and Wilcoxon-Mann Whitney tests were conducted to examine patterns of SSB consumption and sugar/kilocalories consumption for SSB consumers and non-consumers. Results SSB consumers were significantly more likely to consume a drink at mid-morning break. Fewer consumed food at mid-morning break, ate food before school or ate food at lunchtime, but this was not statistically significant. A higher percentage of SSB consumers consumed ‘unhealthy’ food and drinks in comparison to young people who did not consume a SSB. Both median lunchtime sugar consumption (40.7 g vs 10.2 g) and median sugar as a percentage of Kcals (39% vs 14%) were significantly higher for SSB purchasers in comparison to non-purchasers. Conclusion The analysis highlights that SSB purchasers consume significantly more sugar at lunchtime than non-purchasers. However, both purchasers and non-purchasers exceeded WHO (2015) recommendations that sugar consumption be halved to form no more than 5% of daily energy intake. This study provides new insights for public health stakeholders and schools. Multifaceted and inventive strategies relevant to young people will be required to WHO recommendations.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde