Now that's what I call blogging 2021

Posted by Mark Welford, Fuse Communications Manager, Teesside University

Let’s all channel British novelist E.M. Forster and play a little game of Only Connect. What connects the things below?

“Yes of course, they can all be a type of list” (said in the friendly yet ever so slightly patronising manner of host Victoria Coren Mitchell)

I think it's fair to say that we all love a list. I mean, the premise of another very popular BBC gameshow is basically to list pointless stuff.

So here again (a little later than advertised) is our annual list of the most-viewed Fuse blog posts of 2021!

You'd be forgiven for thinking that this would be dominated by Covid and the pandemic as we saw in the 2020 list.

Obviously, we had our fair share of pandemic related posts. Blogs about misinformation, food insecurity, malnutrition, obesity and what children made of it all. How it impacted on work and engagement with public partners, parents, decisionmakers, practitioners, policy-makers and commissioners. How it affected our mental health, our liberties and even inspired a song and a cat-scale of wellbeing!

But as you can see from the list below it didn't dominate the top 5 chart-toppers of 2021. Perhaps a little escapism goes along way...

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Katsushika Hokusai: The Great Wave off Kanagawa

5. The other third wave: a mass epidemic of very individual pain

Posted by Jack Nicholls, Lecturer in Social Work at Northumbria University

Lockdown restrictions were beginning to ease in the UK. But after the jubilation, what if you don't feel the way you think you should?

A very personal post by Jack Nicholls on the long-term mental health consequences of the pandemic, of lockdown and social restrictions, and of its easing. 

*Content/trigger warning: mental health, depression, suicidal feelings.

Page views: 938

Published: 16 April 2021.

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4. Patient and Public involvement with Parents during a Pandemic: the four ‘P’ challenge

Posted by Hannah Batten, Food and Human Nutrition undergraduate student at Newcastle University. Hannah was on a placement year with the Population Health Sciences Institute, as part of the MapMe study aiming to help parents assess child weight.

Body image scales on the MapMe website are being updated for MapMe2

"Most importantly, is to say to our participants that we are extremely grateful for their time and input, particularly during these uncertain times."

Hannah tells us how she and the MapMe study team met the challenges involved in recruiting and running an online Parent Involvement Panel (PIP) to help review documents and study materials, when parents were already dealing with a global pandemic. 

Page views: 1,029

Published: 5 March 2021.

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3. Should pregnancy 'be incentive enough' to quit smoking?

Posted by Susan Jones, Research Associate at Teesside University

In this blog post on #NoSmokingDay, Dr Jones explored deprivation, guilt, shame, stigma and the complex web of reasons behind smoking behaviour.

Just searched #smoking #pregnancy #incentives - struck by many tweets that say 'pregnancy should be incentive enough' to quit smoking. Clearly the stats tell a different story for a significant minority - the question surely is why and what can be done? @ASH_LDN @FreshSmokeFree

— Dr Susan Jones (@Susan_E_Jones) December 10, 2020

Page views: 1,155
Published: 10 March 2021.

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2. Things I wish I’d known when I started my PhD… (part 1)

Posted by members of the Population Health Interventions Programme at the MRC Epidemiology Unit

Research doesn't happen overnight, avoid comparison and channel your inner Arsène Wenger ("Le Professeur"). In our second most popular blog post, the early, mid and senior career researchers at University of Cambridge share their tips for PhD survival.

Here is part 2 which interestingly received only half as many views despite including a High School Musical reference.

Page views: 1,347

Published: 4 June 2021.

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1. Can Forest School inspire the next generation to be happy & healthy?

Posted by Katie Beresford, undergraduate student at Durham University

With more than 2,700 views this is our most read post of 2021 by some distance!

In it Katie explores growing up in the Lake District, embracing nature, finding school restrictive and struggling academically in her early years.

Nearly two decades later she is completing a Fuse summer internship with the NIHR School for Public Health Research and is tasked to review literature discussing the effectiveness of Forest School as a public health intervention.

Why not grab a coffee and take a walk with Katie into the woods to find out what she discovered...

Page views: 2,746

Published: 8 October 2021.

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So there you have it, the top five Fuse blog posts of 2021. Congratulations to Katie who wins a rare and coveted Fuse paperweight!  

Fantastically both Katie and Hannah's blog posts were part of our Fuse blog Student Series which we launched last year! This showcases posts by students who have been challenged to write a blog as part of their studies. The authors may be new to blogging and we hope to provide a 'safe space' for the students to explore their subject and find their voice in the world of public health research. Hopefully this will encourage other students to take the plunge!

As always, many thanks to our loyal readers and fantastic contributors.

Can we do any better in 2022? If you fancy giving it a go, please find out what we are looking for and how to take part here. All contributors receive a much sought-after Fuse badge.

Images:

2. Image: Katsushika Hokusai, (CC0 1.0), via Wikimedia Commons

4. Mr. Alexander Ottesen, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Patient and Public involvement with Parents during a Pandemic: the four ‘P’ challenge

Posted by Hannah Batten, Food and Human Nutrition undergraduate student, Newcastle University.  Hannah is on a placement year with the Population Health Sciences Institute, as part of the MapMe intervention team.

If you have a primary school age child, then you’ve probably heard of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP). For 13 years, it has collected data on the height and weight of children aged 4-5 and 10-11 years old in England. This information is used to calculate what is called the ‘weight status’ of a child and the results reported to parents via letter. Unfortunately, these letters often receive a mixed response, with many parents mistrusting the results.

Research has also shown that parents often struggle to recognise if their child is overweight, preventing them from taking action to address this.

Body image scales on the MapMe website are currently being updated for MapMe2

This issue sparked the development of the MapMe intervention, led by Fuse Director Prof Ashley Adamson and Angela Jones, which aims to help parents assess child overweight / obesity. The MapMe tool includes:

• sex and age specific body images of children ranging from underweight to very overweight
• information on the consequences of being overweight in childhood
• advice on healthy eating, physical activity and links to further support.

Funded for large scale testing by the National Institute for Health Research, the MapMe tool will be delivered as part of the National Child Measurement Programme across nine areas, aiming to improve how parents respond to the letters and the NCMP process, supporting parents to take action.

The project originally had a 3-year time frame, with the intervention scheduled to be delivered in 2020/21. But, as with many other things, COVID-19 got in the way and with schools closed this prevented the delivery of the NCMP, which delayed the project by a year. Although this was disappointing, it has allowed extra time for us to focus on preparing for the next part of the study focusing on Patient and Public Involvement (PPI).

Doing PPI during a pandemic

PPI involves gaining insight during the research process from members of the public, improving research by providing additional expertise from a non-researcher perspective. One key task for the MapMe2 study was to figure out how we could recruit and run an online Parent Involvement Panel (PIP) to help review documents and study materials, when parents are already dealing with a global pandemic.

Recruitment and communication

To accommodate people being stuck at home during COVID-19, parents were recruited through social media and network sites such as the Newcastle University staff pages. Once the Panel was created, we asked parents how they wanted us to communicate with them and kept in frequent contact via email and newsletter to keep them informed and engaged in the project. As this was unknown territory for everyone, good communication with the Parent Involvement Panel was essential.

Moving online

Pre COVID-19, we had planned to hold face-to-face meetings with the parents in easily accessible venues such as the Great North Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne. However, as has become the norm with lockdown and social distancing measures, in person gatherings have been replaced with Zoom meetings. On the plus side, this allowed the meetings to go ahead and parents to attend from any location, but did result in frequent technical issues! When preparing for remote meetings, we sent out documents to parents in advance and scheduled breaks to avoid ‘Zoom fatigue’. We also used ice breakers at the beginning of sessions to make parents feel at ease.

Making information accessible to all

COVID-19 has intensified the digital divide in the UK, with a large number of people having limited access to, or understanding of, devices. Reading information and training documents on the small screen of a smartphone or tablet is not a practical or enjoyable experience. In an attempt to address this, we send hard copies of the Parent Involvement Panel manual through the post.

We have also created videos that will be posted on YouTube (example below), making them easily accessible to parents whenever they wish. The videos include members of the study team welcoming and informing parents about the project and their role, as well as short animations providing training tips. Although these are perhaps not Oscar-winning performances, they provide the information in an alternative and accessible format for volunteers.

 

Learning from our experience in carrying out remote Patient and Public Involvement during COVID-19, information needs to be provided in an accessible way like videos, and volunteers need to be aware and comfortable with the options available to feedback their opinions.

Saying thank you

Finally, and most importantly, is to say to our participants that we are extremely grateful for their time and input, particularly during these uncertain times.

As long as we are mindful of these new challenges, online Patient and Public involvement can still be a valuable and effective way to work.

Part of our Fuse blog Student Series

The Fuse blog Student Series showcases posts by students who have been challenged to write a blog as part of their studies at one of the universities in the Fuse collaboration, the NIHR School for Public Health Research, or perhaps further afield. The authors may be new to blogging and we hope to provide a 'safe space' for the students to explore their subject and find their voice in the world of public health research.