Weight management and physical activity

A review in the International Journal of Obesity looks at the evidence for lifestyle interventions for weight management and concludes that multi-component, longer-term tend to be more effective. The National Obesity Observatory's (NOO) own survey of the subject concurs, but also suggests that brief interventions can work, at least in the short term, if they focus on both diet and activity and incorporate behavioural techniques, including motivational interviewing. How to make physical activity and weight loss programmes work for older obese adults is the subject of a study from the US, while a team from UCL has looked at what enlightenment the Health Survey for England has to offer as regards physical activity levels of South Asians in the UK. NOO also takes a look at data from a variety of surveys, including Health Survey for England and the British Social Attitudes Survey, to examine attitudes to physical activity and healthy eating amongst adults and children and young people. Meanwhile a study in Social Science and Medicine considers the relationship between friendship networks and physical activity amongst children and young people, possibly using spatial autoregressive modelling to analyse jumpers for goalposts...