Obesity and health have recently become a major area of concern in the UK. One of the results of this concern has been a rise in interest in projects and programme which link both physical activity and nutrition. There are many activity projects in existence and there are also many nutrition projects. Despite this, projects have only recently started to work with both issues together. And there is still a wider lack of knowledge about interventions which target multiple health behaviours.

For their ‘Way of Life’ programme in Wales the BIG Lottery Fund asked Hall Aitken to review the evidence on joint nutrition-activity programmes. Our research showed clearly the need to gather information about the effects of socio-economic status and social status on health behaviour.

We also found that much research has been based in schools, in primary care situations and with those who already suffer from obesity, rather than those ‘at risk’. Further, while it may seem appropriate to base interventions in the family the effectiveness of such interventions is still unclear. Cale and Harris (2006: 327)¹ concluded that ‘Overall, a better understanding of the family as a unit for intervention seems to be needed’.
 
We found that successful intervention strategies for individuals or small groups should firstly, include skills training which participants can control themselves.  Secondly and ideally a trained individual should be available to offer social support and professional guidance. And thirdly, inventions should offer choice and be flexible in both delivery and organisation.

We embedded these lessons in our resulting work for BIG in Wales, developing nutrition and activity interventions models for this programme. Organisations across Wales have now submitted their proposals using these models and the results will be announced in late Spring 2008.  Projects will then be funded to run across Wales. We will help projects measure their progress towards the outcomes they want to achieve.

Further information is available from Dr Caroline Hoy, tel: 0141 225 5512, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

¹ Cale, L., & Harris, J. (2006). Interventions to promote young people's physical activity - issues, implications and recommendations for practice. Health Education Journal, 65(4): 348-365.