Welcome to your Wrapped, Fuse Open Science Blog

Posted by Mark Welford, Fuse Communications Manager, Teesside University

If you use Spotify (other streaming platforms are available) then you will no doubt have received your own personalised ‘Wrapped 2022’. A helpful (if somewhat creepy!) summary of your annual listening habits in one eye-searing psychedelically coloured package. Apparently, my most listened to song in 2022 was Baby Shark - I have a 3 year old.

Around this time of year I do a similar (if slightly less garish) job of pulling together the top 5 Fuse blog posts from the previous year.

But this year is a little different.

It’s award season and this year the blogs listed below were in the running for a coveted gong. Not at the GRAMMYs, Oscars, Emmys, BAFTAs, or BRITs but the (much more prestigious) first ever Fuse Awards!

Earlier this week (30 January), the post with the most views was crowned best blog of 2022 with the author awarded a shiny trophy at our ceremony in Durham *link may contain SPOILERS*.

So without further ado, here is the full list of the runners and writers in reverse order, culminating with the post that received the most views...

5. Planning for a healthier future?

Posted by Tim Townshend, Professor of Urban Design for Health, Newcastle University

“...primarily designing around the needs of the private car - rather than humans - has been a disaster.”

Prof Townshend explores how we can plan for a healthier future by intervening in the built environment. From the 'toxic high street', to the green (and blue) spaces in our cities that encourage physical activity and social interaction, positive for physical health and mental wellbeing.

Posted: 13 May 2022

4. Science, and the art of communication

Posted by Louis Goffe, Research Associate, NIHR Policy Research Unit in Behavioural Science

"...building the evidence-base isn’t enough, we all need to work on at least one aspect of the artistic craft of research promotion."

COVID19 has brought into sharp focus that health promotion takes more than good science, there is an art to the delivery. In this post, Louis explores vaccine misinformation, the infodemic, involving the public and advocacy.

Posted: 28 January 2022

3. What support do children and young people actually want when their parents use drugs and alcohol?

Posted by Cassey Muir, Fuse & NIHR School for Public health Research (SPHR) funded PhD Researcher from Newcastle University and Kira Terry, Lived Experience Expert.

“No-one has ever asked me about how I feel in any of this.”

Fuse PhD student Cassey shares her research aiming to understand the experiences, perceived impacts and coping strategies of young people whose parents use substances. The post ends with Kira’s thoughts about contributing to the project as a Lived Experience Research Advisor.

Posted: 9 December 2022

2. Is a picture truly worth a thousand words?

Posted by Emma Adams, NIHR ARC NENC Mental Health Fellow at Newcastle University, and Experts by Experience from Fulfilling Lives Newcastle Gateshead & #HealthNow Newcastle

Find out how Emma and her Experts by Experience worked together to develop striking visuals to share what they had learned from a study exploring access to community based mental health and substance use support during the COVID-19 pandemic for individuals experiencing homelessness and those providing support.

Posted: 25 March 2022

And in at number one our award winner...

1. Universal Credit experiences and research co-production

Posted by David Black, Fuse Public Partner and Expert by Experience. Introduction by Mandy Cheetham, Research Fellow in the Applied Research Collaboration North East and North Cumbria (ARC NENC), Northumbria University

“In the past I'd always found the process of seeking

 help from the unemployment benefit system to be

 relatively easy, but Universal Credit was a disaster

 for me.”

Ever wondered how you could help shape research as a member of the public? In this Fuse blog, David shares his personal experiences of claiming benefits and how this has informed research to assess the impact of Universal Credit.

Posted: 11 March 2022

Below is a photo of David (second from the right) along with the other Fuse Award winners. Congratulations to all! 

 

Many thanks to everyone who joined us for the first ever Fuse Awards @durham_uni and a huge congratulations to our winners and those shortlisted! 🏆🎉🤩

The standard of entries was exceptional and our panel of judges had tough decisions to make in all categories.#FuseAwards23 pic.twitter.com/uJimaKDzc7

— Fuse (@fuse_online) January 31, 2023

Catch up with all the award winners using #FuseAwards23 or see the event programme on the Fuse website for all those shortlisted.

Join Fuse to be in with a shout of winning a coveted Fuse Award in 2024!

Now that's what I call blogging 2020: the Covid edition

Posted by Mark Welford, Fuse Communications Officer, Teesside University

It was business as usual for the Fuse blog in January 2020.  PhD student Kelly Rose told us about having sleepless nights thinking about school food and teenage diets; Coral Hanson and her co-authors channelled their inner Mr Motivator to consider whether exercise referral was fit for a new decade; and Angela Wearn asked if reaching the ‘hard-to-reach’ meant leaving traditional academia at the door?

So far so good… and then the ‘C’ word arrived and the world changed and with it the Fuse blog in the form of John Mooney’s frighteningly prescient post on the 5 February - Coronavirus: expect the unexpected in an unfolding emergency.

Last year we published posts about workplace health, tackling obesity through planning policy, the impact of commercial actors on health, food shaming, mental health, the emotional road to impact, Universal Credit, facing a Parliamentary Select Committee, inequalities, family carers of people living with dementia, International Men’s Day (yes, there is one!), and kicking Coca-Cola out of Christmas.

Our authors asked: 

• Can your education, income or even your job affect your chances of receiving newer cancer treatments? 
• Why is it so difficult to change our health habits? 
• Does antibiotic prescribing penalise communities in most need? 
• Would easy-read documents for all mean a more inclusive healthcare system? and;
• What is the recipe for a happy retirement?

But it will come as no surprise that the 2020 chart of the top five most-read Fuse blog posts is dominated by one topic: Coronavirus, Covid-19 or just plain COVID.

Here are our chart-toppers of 2020:

5. Experts by Experience challenge us to create opportunities for them to take the lead in research

First up is our only non-Covid related entry in which Angela Broadbridge and Ged Hazlehurst from the Fulfilling Lives Newcastle Gateshead project write about co-producing research with people with lived experience of multiple and complex needs.

Page views: 1727.  Posted: 15 May 2020

4. COVID-19 has brought the “digital divide” to the fore

Gemma Wilson from Northumbria University explores how a lack of access to technology and wider support networks during the pandemic is significantly heightening inequalities.

Page views: 1839.  Posted: 29 May 2020

 

3. Coronavirus: expect the unexpected in an unfolding emergency

Up next is the aforementioned post by John Mooney, Locum Consultant in Public Health at NHS Highland and one-time specialist in the epidemiology of respiratory infectious diseases. Published days after the first confirmed UK cases, John's blog was prophetic in highlighting the potential for symptomless transmission, virus instability and divergent strains.

Page views: 1909.  Posted: 5 Feb 2020

 

2. This crisis has shown how many people were only just about managing

Our runner-up is Mandy Cheetham from Northumbria University writing about her experience with a community hub delivering food parcels, prescriptions and supporting vulnerable people during the pandemic.

Page views: 2019.  Posted: 9 May 2020

 

1. Working from home isn’t for everyone - here’s how to cope if you’re struggling

"Being isolated at home can be hard; it is easy to feel cut off from friends and co-workers, to feel out of the loop when it comes to work decisions and to feel stressed with how best to work when at home."  

During the first national lockdowns imposed by the UK governments, Annabel van Griethuysen from Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, shared her tips on working from home. These include keeping a routine, eating and drinking well, having a completely separate space to work (if possible) which is tidied or hidden away at the end of the day, staying connected and reaching out to talk to your social circles if you feel anxious and stressed.

At a time when many people are again being asked to work from home it is apt that Annabel's post should take the crown as most popular blog in 2020.

Page views: 2106.  Posted: 9 April 2020

So there you have it, the top five Fuse blog posts from 2020.  All five received more page views than last year's number one, which is thanks to our loyal readers and fantastic contributors - thank you!  

Can we do any better in 2021?  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, and the writer of the most read post wins a rare and coveted Fuse paperweight.*

Happy New Year!

*when we are allowed back in the office!

Images:

1. "Now That's What I Call Music! 1991" by Brett Jordan is licensed under CC BY 2.0
2. Courtesy of Fulfilling Lives Newcastle Gateshead: http://www.fulfillinglives-ng.org.uk

All page views correct at the time of writing.

School food research and teenage diets mean sleepless nights and a mountain to climb

Posted by Kelly Rose, Graduate Tutor/PhD researcher at Teesside University

In the spirit of the commencement of the New Year, I thought it the perfect timing to write a second Fuse blog post reflecting on my first year of PhD study. Also, driven by my waking at 2am, Monday of the first week back in a cold sweat, realising I am more baffled than ever!

In my first blog post, I described myself as feeling at the bottom of a mountain…

Now a year and a half in, I can report some relief at successfully passing my annual review, confirmation that I have the capability. This is definite progress, and a sure sign of having climbed at least a little higher towards the summit. A few days ago I also celebrated my 44th birthday, and I suppose the coinciding of a new decade brought a significantly reflective mood (in the most positive sense). This past year has tested me in so many ways that I had never expected. If you want to know yourself at a deeper level, I think a PhD certainly would be the recommendation. I started this journey with the attitude (that I was always telling my students and children) that anyone can do anything they set their mind to. This mantra has definitely helped in times of significant self-doubt.

Progress update

So far, I have completed a systematic review, had a paper of the political timeline of food policy published in the Nutrition Bulletin, shared my research in a conference, and was boosted by an article I contributed to the conversation.com being shared in the Independent online.

What have I learned?

I left secondary school teaching in July 2018 with a strong sense that more was needed to improve adolescent nutrition. Today, with more of a grasp on the research, I am even more incredulous as to why more is not being done by policymakers.

The evidence is clear, teenagers have the poorest diets of any other age group in the UK. The Lancet commission stated we can reap huge benefits from improved health policies, focusing on the global adolescent population, after all they are our future parents and workforce. As I found in the political timeline research and systematic review, there are many examples of good practice with regards to implementing and evaluation of school food standards, whole school policy and health interventions. But still no priority being placed on consistent evaluation and of policing school food provision in England.

Waking up at 2am questions

• Why is our school food provision failing to improve adolescent nutrition?
• Why does the Childhood obesity strategy (part 2) make the assumption that all schools in England are following the national school food standards when there is no evidence that most schools are? #pizzaandcookies. 
• Why the inertia and lack of prioritising teen diets, when the evidence points to the impacts of diet on mental health and school performance? 

Of course, it’s just not that easy, because, this is a multilevel issue, and the problem is much more complex than just implementing a policy or three. There are significant barriers to challenge, as we see the commercial determinants to health as a major part (defined as “strategies and approaches used by the private sector to promote products and choices that are detrimental to health” (Kickbusch et al 2016)).

One of the factors I want to focus in on over the next two years, is the social aspect of teen diets. It is becoming more and more an accepted ‘norm’ that teenagers have a poor diet, and food choice is a major factor in fitting in with peers, with healthy food choices often ridiculed. A low risk perception of unhealthful food choice seems to be a barrier in improving the health of the next generation. I wonder how we can flip this influence.

With all the reflecting done, I am ready to move forward into 2020. This year the plan is to see my systematic review published, to plan and conduct research in building a picture of experiences, views and what is happening in a range of schools in the North East. And with this public declaration I aim to keep momentum and to contribute to the body of research moving forward.

Keep believing and achieving.


Image:
"Junk fast Food illustrations infographics editorial" by Svajune Garnyte is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

Now that's what I call blogging 2019

Posted by Mark Welford, Fuse Communications Officer, Teesside University

Happy New Year – can I still say that or have we reached peak-greet when this obligatory salutation is no longer required in email, phone, or awkward fleeting corridor exchange?

This time of year is all about numbers: the 12 days of Christmas, the pounds you’ve gained (lbs) or lost (£), counting steps, units, the 31 days of Dry January, Veganuary, or the point at which you can grant yourself a run free day.

It therefore seems fitting that the Fuse blog has a countdown of its own.  Last year was a fine vintage for blog posts but you may not have had the opportunity to read all 40 of them.  To save you time we have had a look back and created a Top 5 Chart of the ‘bestsellers’.

So without further ado, here’s our chart toppers:

5. The provocatively titled Can cancer ever be a good thing? in which Fiona Menger (@slt_fi) revisits the writing of 'cancer columnist' John Diamond while working on a head-and-neck cancer research study with a focus on a phenomenon called post-traumatic growth.

Page views: 585.  Posted: 31 May 2019 

4. In What old crisp packets dig up Duika Burges Watson (@debedub) gets hands on to unpack the mystery of the humble crisp.  What is their continued value as ‘food’ and can we still enjoy them as a cultural icon without creating so much waste and damaging our health?

Page views: 640.  Posted: 22 February 2019

Still from the animation

3. Why do some women continue to smoke when they are pregnant?  Sue Jones (@Susan_E_Jones) shares research findings on overcoming barriers to implementing NICE guidance on supporting pregnant women to quit smoking.  The blog includes a short animation which was developed based on the findings.

Page views: 663.  Posted: 10 May 2019

2. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try & try again...  Suzanne Moffatt (@SuzanneMoffatt) reflects on 58 months of knock backs in her efforts to secure ‘the big grant’ because multiple failures before success is often untold and sometimes persistence pays off.

Page views: 686.  Posted: 15 February 2019

Courtesy of Children's Future Food Inquiry via twitter

1. "It’s time to act!  It’s time this country gave every child the right to food!"  Pamela Graham (@PamLGraham) begins her blog post with this powerful statement from Corey (pictured right), a 15-year-old Young Food Ambassador who sat on a stage in Westminster and bravely told an audience about her experiences of food insecurity.  With more than double the views of its nearest competitor, Young people taking a stand for their #Right2Food takes the crown as most popular blog post in 2019.

Page views: 1474.  Posted: 03 May 2019

So there you have it, the top five Fuse blog posts from 2019. Can we can do any better in 2020? If you fancy giving it a go, please find out what we are looking for and how to take part here.

P.s. perhaps we need to look more closely at what's going on in February and May!?


Image:

1.  'Now That's What I Call Music! 1989' by brett jordan via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0): https://www.flickr.com/photos/x1brett/45056607035/

Happy New Year from everyone at Fuse

We would like to wish all our readers and contributors a very Happy New Year - why not make a resolution to blog in 2020 and send us your posts?

Image (adapted with thanks):
The original uploader was Rsabbatini at English Wikipedia. [CC BY 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

New Year, New You or is it?

Happy New Year - or is it too late to say that? Eleven days in and how are the resolutions going? In this, the first blog of 2019, two Fuse experts take a wry look at the healthy change rhetoric around at this time of year.

New year, new backlash?

Amelia Lake, Associate Director of Fuse and Reader in Public Health Nutrition at Teesside University

Annually we have a period of feast (December) followed by a period of resolution and attempted behaviour change. Is it just me, or is there a trend away from the new year new you pressure? While there is the January diet season and 'detox' season (which requires a blog post in itself), there is also the increase in gym membership (in this article in the Independent, one gym claims a 40% increase in web traffic between December and January). Also the Veganuary campaign, encouraging people to try a vegan diet for the month, which passed 225,000 sign-ups in its first week.

I may be stating the obvious here but we go from excess to aspired deprivation. Add into the mix the oh so helpful food environment. Did anyone else notice Easter eggs appearing in supermarkets on Boxing Day? Just as pestered parents (me) breathed a sigh of relief that the queue at our local convenience store (Co-op I’m looking at you) wouldn’t be filled with chocolate after Christmas – no…. we've already moved onto April’s feasting!

Back to the new year new you backlash, there seems to be a movement away from drastic change and a desire to be self accepting, more realistic and thoughtful about food. I have noticed a number of intuitive eating books thrust into the limelight and a trend towards body acceptance.

I appreciate that social media in general can be an echo chamber. In the world of nutrition on twitter and instagram, I try to follow people with qualifications in nutrition, as opposed to the general #nutribollocks which is so abundant at this time of year.

However #nutribollocks or not, intuitive eating or not, detoxing or not… we are surrounded (physical, advertising, online) with unhealthy options, also known as the Obesogenic Environment. Finding the healthy option still remains challenging. With the increase in popularity of vegetarianism and veganism[1], food outlets have a broader range available, for example the now infamous VeganSausageRoll - still not a healthy option, but what an incredible social media team!

So despite the rhetoric at this time of year about healthy changes, until we have systemic changes in our environment that make the healthy option the easy option, that make it easy and safe for us to build exercise into our daily life, that make alcohol less accessible, we are not going to have a healthy population.

Amelia is a dietitian and public health nutritionist.
@Lakenutrition

The benefits of dry January and remembering Scotch & Wry

John Mooney, Fuse Associate and University of Sunderland Senior Public Health Lecturer

The late Scottish Comedian Rikki Fulton’s sketch entitled New Year’s day sums up perfectly the rationale and motivation that many might share for giving up the demon drink, at least for a while, as the New Year dawns. Learning of the events of the previous night’s ‘Hogmanay party’, during which he had gambled away his car in a poker game and set fire to and destroyed his own uninsured house, the revelation that he had won a 5 litre bottle of whisky in the raffle was precious little compensation!

For most people choosing to abstain from alcohol in January however, their reasons are usually less extreme! Indeed one of the criticisms of the concept of “dry January” is that those most likely to successfully abstain are probably already light drinkers in any case and the resulting likely health gains are correspondingly small. At the other extreme of course, for those who are dependent on alcohol (by clinical definition), impersonating the Christmas leftovers by going ‘cold-turkey’ with respect to alcohol, can have serious adverse health consequences such as convulsions etc. and should be avoided. An evaluation by de Vocht and colleagues published in 2016 showed that while ‘dry January’ led to an increase in attempts to cut down, any detectable impact on consumption remained elusive[2]. In an era in which excess alcohol consumption has become normalised and the price of alcohol in real terms has never been cheaper (in the absence as yet of minimum unit pricing for most of the UK), the overwhelming consensus is that most of the population would benefit from reducing their alcohol consumption, particularly if the resolution held all year round!

John is a public health specialist and a part-time public health stand-up comedian.
@StandupforPHlth


References:

1. "In May 2016, the Vegan Society commissioned Ipsos Mori to poll 10,000 people on their dietary habits and found that Britain’s vegan population had increased from 150,000 to 542,000 in the space of a decade (alongside a vegetarian population of 1.14 million".  Hancox, D. (2018).  The unstoppable rise of veganism: how a fringe movement went mainstream. The Guardian, [online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/apr/01/vegans-are-coming-millennials-health-climate-change-animal-welfare [Accessed 10 Jan. 2019].
2. de Vocht F, Brown J, Beard E, Angus C, Brennan A, Michie S, Campbell R, Hickman M: Temporal patterns of alcohol consumption and attempts to reduce alcohol intake in England. BMC public health 2016, 16(1):917.

Kale and running shoes

Posted by Amelia Lake, Associate Director of Fuse, Dietitian and Reader in Public Health Nutrition at Teesside University

"January is our busiest month" said Hayley in the bustling fruit and vegetable shop in the small North Yorkshire market town where I live. This was on the first Saturday of January. She said their sales of kale had rocketed as people started juicing, eating better and generally trying to improve their diet. All this following the excesses of Christmas.

On Sunday morning, when I was out running (or trying to run on the icy pavements!), I was surprised at the number of runners pounding the streets in our small town. Then I remembered, it's the first weekend in January. Maybe, like me they have a shiny new gadget that they are somewhat obsessed with (how many steps have I done today?). There must be an exponential increase in the number of runners and kale consumers.

What is it about 'New Year, New You' that never fails to deliver and how long will these new behaviours be sustained? Why is it that our print and broadcast media don't grow tired of feeding us (excuse the pun) the same January story of …”you've eaten and drunk to excess in December now it's time to abstain from alcohol (Dry January) and go on an excessive unsustainable dietary regime”... Or the most recent health “craze” of ‘raw water’.

Our social media feeds are filled with so called 'nutrition and fitness experts'. The Instagram squares show us before and after pictures of success stories, quick fixes, rapid weight loss etc. etc... Not so many squares saying - look at your diets, your lifestyle, make sustainable changes as these are more likely to succeed in the long term (well apart from one of my professional organisations The British Dietetic Association).

What about the evidence? Does it advocate New Year's resolutions? Are we programmed to wait for the longer term goals or do we need to have instant results? A study published in 2016 suggests that while individuals may exercise for the long term goal of improved health, it is actually the immediate reward that predicts their persistence in that behaviour.

Ultimately these resolutions are about an individual's behaviour change. Much of our public health policy focuses on individuals changing their behaviours. Anyone who has tried to do this knows how difficult it is. Yet, we (professionals, the media, society) continue to focus on the individual who is generally living in an environment where kale isn't an everyday option and running shoes only go on at the weekend – or sit looking pristine in the cupboard.

What we need is a change in the system or what is called a 'whole systems approach' to health and lifestyle problems. The most obvious lifestyle related problem is that of obesity. There is a chronic problem of energy imbalance affecting our whole population young, middle-aged and old. We are encouraged to eat less and exercise more but really, the environment doesn't support those changes (for the majority of the population). Will our policy makers have any New Year's resolutions to focus less on the individual and more on the system in which we make our behaviours? With changes such as a sugar levy coming into play, we are seeing food manufacturers reformulate or change product size. But we also hear reports of people stockpiling sugary drinks that are about to be reformulated. Is this the start of a shift away from the individual and to systems thinking? I very much hope so.

Kale and running shoes are not the answer to addressing a health and lifestyle crisis but long term supported and sustainable changes are.


Image: 'Marinated Kale Salad-2' (23204695074_92c53db643_z) by 'jules' via Flickr.com, copyright © 2015: https://www.flickr.com/photos/stone-soup/23204695074

52 weeks in public health research, part 52

Posted by Emma Foster, Amelia Lake, Lorraine McSweeney and Mark Welford

So this is it, we have reached the final week of our 52 week public health picture project. But what insights has it provided into the everyday lives of public health researchers? Find out in a blog post coming soon. A big thank you to all those who contributed their images.

Happy New Year!

Posted by Emma Foster: Not a New Year resolution as a) it seems silly to start the day after a big party and b) now is when I have a bit more time to exercise... So starting tomorrow this cross trainer is going to be getting much more use....and not just for drying clothes!

Posted by Amelia Lake: Less of a resolution more of an ambition! No more trainers on the bike - it's time to look like a pro... and possibly get a few knocks and bruises in the process!

Posted by Lorraine McSweeney: I recently attended a graduation ceremony at Newcastle University to receive my doctorate award. For the first time in the congregation history the PhD titles were announced during the ceremony; mine being 'Prevention of obesity: exploring strategies for intervention in preschool'. The ceremony was attended by my supervisor and Fuse Director Ashley Adamson. Also in attendance that day was television journalist and newsreader Angela Rippon who received an honorary degree for her charity work in dementia.

Posted by Mark Welford: Fundraisers braving the North Sea to earn money for their favourite charity in the Annual Boxing Day dip. A bit of physical activity after the Christmas day indulgence and the beginning of a New Year's resolution?