The prevalence of obesity is growing unabatedly despite the considerable efforts
directed at the problem. Although abundant research has contributed to our understanding of the multifactorial causes of obesity, there is less attention to research
that is relevant for guiding social marketers, public health professionals and
policymakers in delivering public health interventions for countering and/or
preventing the problem of obesity. This review offers six points for identifying and
developing research relevant for guiding community-wide obesity interventions
based on the idea that an applied marketing research perspective offers a better
model for identifying effective interventions than more theoretical academic
research. Specifically, the research guiding public health and social marketing interventions needs to (1) provide information on ultimate outcomes (weight, health and
unintended consequences) more than intermediate outcomes (beliefs, attitudes and
behaviour), (2) report on observations collected over the longer term, (3) use natural
settings (even at a cost of internal validity), (4) endeavour to overcome observereffects, (5) report effect sizes (rather than statistical significance) and (6) use moderator analyses to capture variation in how a population responds to interventions.
Last. Lee Smith(ARU: Anglia Ruskin University)H-Index: 34
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Over the last three decades, the prevalence of obesity has increased rapidly in populations around the world. Despite a wealth of research, the relative contributions of the different mechanisms un...
Abstract The methodological quality and reporting practices of laboratory studies of human eating behavior determine the validity and replicability of nutrition science. The aim of this research was to examine basic methodology and reporting practices in recent representative laboratory studies of human eating behavior. We examined laboratory studies of human eating behavior (N = 140 studies) published during 2016. Basic methodology (e.g., sample size, use of participant blinding) and reporting ...
: Can recent failures to replicate psychological research be explained by typical magnitudes of statistical power, bias or heterogeneity? A large survey of 12,065 estimated effect sizes from 200 meta-analyses and nearly 8,000 papers is used to assess these key dimensions of replicability. First, our survey finds that psychological research is, on average, afflicted with low statistical power. The median of median power across these 200 areas of research is about 36%, and only about 8% of studies...
Background Reducing the portion sizes of foods available in restaurants and cafeterias is one promising approach to reducing energy intake, but there is little evidence of its impact from randomised studies in field settings. This study aims to i. examine the feasibility and acceptability, and ii. estimate the impact on energy purchased, of reducing portion sizes in worksite cafeterias.
Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) are increasingly popular in the social sciences, not only in medicine. We argue that the lay public, and sometimes researchers, put too much trust in RCTs over other methods of investigation. Contrary to frequent claims in the applied literature, randomization does not equalize everything other than the treatment in the treatment and control groups, it does not automatically deliver a precise estimate of the average treatment effect (ATE), and it does not reli...
Introduction On January 1, 2017, Philadelphia implemented a beverage tax of $0.015/ounce on sugar (“regular”) and sugar-substitute (“diet”) beverages. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the immediate impact of the tax on residents’ consumption of soda, fruit drinks, energy drinks, and bottled water. Methods A repeat cross-sectional study design used data from a random-digit-dialing phone survey during a no-tax period (December 6–31, 2016) and a tax period (January 15–February 31, 2017) am...
#2Chyke A. Doubeni(UPenn: University of Pennsylvania)H-Index: 62
Last. Jonathan M. Samet(SC: University of Southern California)H-Index: 136
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: On 5 and 6 December 2017, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened the Pathways to Prevention Workshop: Methods for Evaluating Natural Experiments in Obesity to identify the status of methods for assessing natural experiments to reduce obesity, areas in which these methods could be improved, and research needs for advancing the field. This article considers findings from a systematic evidence review on methods for evaluating natural experiments in obesity, workshop presentations by exp...
Background: Given the obesity pandemic, rigorous methodological approaches, including natural experiments, are needed. Purpose: To identify studies that report effects of programs, policies, or built environment changes on obesity prevention and control and to describe their methods. Data Sources: PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and EconLit (January 2000 to August 2017). Study Selection: Natural experiments and experimental studies evaluating a program, policy, or built environment change in U.S. or n...