Healthy Weight HIT 2023-24

Generating evidence to improve weight management practice

HIT co-director Karen Coulman has published research with health professionals and patients to understand the reasons why overweight and obesity is under-recorded in primary care, and why only 3% of people diagnosed with overweight or obesity between 2007 and 2020 received a referral for weight management. Her work will contribute to the improvement of data captured for the National Obesity Database, as she is a member of this group. Karen was featured on BBC Panorama where she talked about her findings.

Fellow co-director Julian Hamilton Shield was involved in a study using Children of the 90s data, which found that waist-circumference-to-height-ratio was a better measurement for obesity in children than body mass index (BMI). The project gained extensive media coverage, and Julian was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Addressing health inequalities by involving people with lived experience

The region’s Our Future Health report identified African and Caribbean communities as having high prevalence of obesity. This year the HIT engaged successfully with the African Voices Forum to better understand the cultural contexts of excess weight and recruited three new public contributors because of this new connection.

The public contributors have initiated new projects, including understanding how to improve the language used in weight management tools – particularly the NHS BMI calculator – and organising a workshop during Bristol’s International Women’s Day celebrations to explore women’s perceptions of ‘healthy weight’. HIT co-directors also took part in a Somali women’s wellbeing event. Their stall offered women the chance to measure their BMI and have a discussion about this and was very well attended with great engagement.

Bringing together expertise beyond our region

In December HIT co-director Justine Womack led a successful and well attended South-West children’s healthy weight quality improvement workshop. It brought together professionals from the BNSSG Integrated Care Board, local authorities and Tier 2 and Tier 3 weight management leads (including health visitors and school nurses) to agree on approaches that could bring improvement in children’s healthy weight pathways.

Funding enabled in 2023-24

Healthy Weight HIT helped secure £648,321 in 2023-24 for research, improving outcomes and addressing health inequalities.