Adrian H Taylor

University of Plymouth | UoP · Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine & Dentistry

Aims: For smokers unmotivated to quit, we assessed the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of behavioural support to reduce smoking and increase physical activity on prolonged abstinence and related outcomes. Design: A multi-centred pragmatic two-arm parallel randomised controlled trial. Setting: Primary care and the community across four Uni...

Background: The e-coachER trial aimed to determine whether adding web-based behavioural support to exercise referral schemes (ERS) increased long-term device-measured physical activity (PA) for patients with chronic conditions, compared to ERS alone, within a randomised controlled trial. This study explores the mechanisms of action of the e-coachE...

Background Approximately 15 million people in the UK live with obesity, around 5 million of whom have severe obesity (body mass index (BMI) ≥35kg/m ² ). Having severe obesity markedly compromises health, well-being and quality of life, and substantially reduces life expectancy. These adverse outcomes are prevented or ameliorated by weight loss, for...

Objective: Delivery is one of the most common ways of assessing fidelity in behavioral interventions. However, there is a lack of research reporting on how well an intervention protocol reflects its proposed theoretical principles (design fidelity). This study presents a systematic method for assessing design fidelity and applies it to the eMotion...

Objective: To determine whether adding web-based support (e-coachER) to an exercise referral scheme (ERS) increases objectively assessed physical activity (PA). Design: Multicentre trial with participants randomised to usual ERS alone (control) or usual ERS plus e-coachER (intervention). Setting: Primary care and ERS in three UK sites from 201...

Background Little is known about the effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of interventions, such as health trainer support, to improve the health and well-being of people recently released from prison or serving a community sentence, because of the challenges in recruiting participants and following them up. Objectives This pilot trial aimed to ass...

Background: There is modest evidence that exercise referral schemes (ERS) increase physical activity (PA) of inactive individuals with chronic health conditions. There is a need to identify additional ways to improve the effects of ERS on long-term PA. Objectives: To determine if adding the e-coachER intervention to ERS is more effective and cost...

Background: Taking regular exercise, whether cardiovascular-type exercise or resistance exercise, may help people to give up smoking, particularly by reducing cigarette withdrawal symptoms and cravings, and by helping to manage weight gain. Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of exercise-based interventions alone, or combined with a smoki...

Introduction: Physical activity is recommended for improving health among people with common chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis and low mood. One approach to promote physical activity is via primary care exercise referral schemes (ERS). However, there is limited support for the effectiveness of ERS for incre...

Introduction People with experience of the criminal justice system typically have worse physical and mental health, lower levels of mental well-being and have less healthy lifestyles than the general population. Health trainers have worked with offenders in the community to provide support for lifestyle change, enhance mental well-being and signpos...

Background: Antenatal depression is associated with harmful consequences for both the mother and child. One intervention that might be effective is participation in regular physical activity although data on this question in pregnant smokers is currently lacking. Methods: Women were randomised to six-weekly sessions of smoking cessation behaviou...

Objective: The aims of this study were to (1) develop an approach to assess the delivery fidelity of a complex intervention to simultaneously increase physical activity and reduce smoking and (2) use this approach to assess the variation of fidelity across the delivery of different intervention components of the intervention. Method: Audio recor...

Background: Physical activity is a potentially effective treatment for depression and depressive relapse. However, promoting physical activity in people with depression is challenging. Interventions informed by theory and evidence are therefore needed to support people with depression to become more physically active. eMotion is a Web-based interv...

Background Alcohol and substance use results in significant human and economic cost globally and is associated with economic costs of £21 billion and £15billion within the UK, respectively, and trends for use are not improving. Pharmacological interventions are well researched, but relapse rates across interventions for substance and alcohol use di...

Background The challenges of delivering interventions for pregnant smokers have been poorly documented. Also, the process of promoting a physical activity intervention for pregnant smokers has not been previously recorded. This study describes the experiences of researchers conducting a randomised controlled trial of physical activity as an aid to...

Background Study attrition has the potential to compromise a trial’s internal and external validity. The aim of the present study was to identify factors associated with participant attrition in a pilot trial of the effectiveness of a novel behavioural support intervention focused on increasing physical activity to reduce smoking, to inform the met...

RationaleHabitual physical activity (PA) may have an important role in suppressing cigarette cravings. Systematic reviews show a strong acute effect of bouts of PA on reducing cigarette cravings, and it may be that these effects accumulate. Objectives The aim was to investigate the relationship between habitual levels of PA and cigarette cravings i...

Background Depression is associated with physical inactivity, which may mediate the relationship between depression and a range of chronic physical health conditions. However, few interventions have sought to combine a psychological intervention for depression with behaviour change techniques to promote increased physical activity such as behaviour...

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of a physical activity intervention for smoking cessation during pregnancy. Design: Parallel group, randomised controlled, multicentre trial. Setting: 13 hospitals in England, April 2009 to January 2014. Participants: 789 pregnant smokers, aged 16-50 years and at 10-24 weeks' gestation, who smoked at...

Economically disadvantaged smokers not intending to stop may benefit from interventions aimed at reducing their smoking. This study assessed the effects of a behavioural intervention promoting an increase in physical activity versus usual care in a pilot randomised controlled trial. Disadvantaged smokers who wanted to reduce but not quit were rando...

Research has shown that acute exercise reduces urges for chocolate in normal weight people. This study aimed to examine the effects of an acute exercise bout on urges to consume sugary snacks, affect as well as 'psychological and physiological responses' to stress and a 'sugary snack cue', in overweight individuals. Following 3 days of chocolate-ab...

Background: Research is needed on what influences recruitment to smoking reduction trials, and how to increase their reach. The present study aimed to i) assess the feasibility of recruiting a disadvantaged population, ii) examine the effects of recruitment methods on participant characteristics, iii) identify resource requirements for different r...

Background Challenges remain to find ways to support patients with depression who have low levels of physical activity (PA) to overcome perceived barriers and enhance the perceived value of PA for preventing future relapse. There is an evidence-base for behavioural activation (BA) for depression, which focuses on supporting patients to restore acti...

Objectives Physical activity and depression have been consistently shown to be inversely associated in epidemiological surveys. It is not clear, however, whether successful treatment of depression results in increases in physical activity. Method Systematic review of randomized trials examining psychological treatment for adult depression to ident...

The effects of acute bouts of physical activity (PA) on Strength of Desire (SoD) and Desire to Smoke (DtS) using individual participant data (IPD) from 19 acute randomised controlled studies were quantified. However, there is a need to identify factors influencing this relationship. To understand who most benefits from PA, whether changes in affect...

Background: There have been few rigorous studies on the effects of behavioural support for helping smokers to reduce who do not immediately wish to quit. While reduction may not have the health benefits of quitting, it may lead smokers to want to quit. Physical activity (PA) helps to reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms, and also reduces weight...

Background Short bouts of exercise can reduce cravings, attentional bias (AB) and substance use among abstaining smokers and snackers. Only one study has shown reduced alcohol cravings following exercise but none have investigated the effects on attentional bias. The aim of the present study was to examine whether a single session of exercise reduc...

A qualitative study was conducted within a randomised trial of facilitated physical activity for depression based on Self-Determination Theory and motivational interviewing. Interviews were held with 19 participants at 4 months, and 12 participants were re-interviewed 8 months later. The interviews were analysed in accordance with Grounded Theory u...

Poor self-regulation of high energy snacking has been linked to weight gain. Physical activity can acutely reduce chocolate consumption and cravings but the effects on attentional bias (AB) are unknown. The study aimed to test the effects of exercise among normal and overweight/obese individuals during temporary and longer abstinence. Participants...

Beurteilung der Datenlage zu den unmittelbaren Auswirkungen einer Bewegungseinheit in der Raucherentwohnung bzw. bei temporarer Nikotinabstinenz, auf die Entzugssymptomatik, sowie auf das Verlangen nach Zigaretten. Es wurde eine systematische Bewertung von im Zeitraum Dezember 1975 – Dezember 2011 veroffentlichten Fachartikeln, die den Einfluss ein...

Objective: Emotional snacking contributes to weight gain after smoking cessation. Exercise acutely reduces cravings for cigarettes and snack food. This study examined if different exercise intensities acutely reduces snack and cigarette cravings and attentional bias (AB) to video clips of snacks and cigarettes among abstinent smokers. Methods: A...

To test whether older drug users (aged 40 and over) could be recruited to an exercise referral (ER) scheme, to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability and measure the impact of participation on health. Observational pilot. Liverpool, UK. (1) 12 men and 5 women recruited to ER. (2) 7 specialist gym instructors. Logistic feasibility and acceptabil...

Background Intensive diet and physical activity interventions have been found to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, but are resource intensive. The American Heart Association recently recommended motivational interviewing (MI) as an effective approach for low-intensity interventions to promote health-related outcomes such as weight loss. How...

There is increasing interest in how to help people with a mental health problem to initiate and maintain an increase in physical activity. Some studies have focused on patient preferences for support, through surveys and interviews. Relatively little is known about whether existing behaviour change theories, and their respective constructs as targe...

Helping smokers from disadvantaged backgrounds to reduce their smoking could result in more quit attempts and successful quitting, which in turn could help to tackle health inequalities. No study has assessed the effects of exercise counselling (delivered by health trainers) on smoking reduction and quitting, among hard-to-reach smokers. We aimed t...

Many women try to stop smoking in pregnancy but fail. One difficulty is that there is insufficient evidence that medications for smoking cessation are effective and safe in pregnancy and thus many women prefer to avoid these. Physical activity (PA) interventions may assist cessation; however, trials examining these interventions have been too small...

Participant’s handbook for physical activity intervention.

Therapist manual for delivering smoking cessation intervention.

Therapist manual for delivering physical activity intervention.

Aims: To conduct an updated systematic review and the first meta-analysis of experimental trials investigating the acute effects of short bouts of physical activity (PA) on strength of desire (SoD) and desire to smoke (DtS) using individual participant data (IPD). Methods: A systematic review of literature and IPD meta-analyses included trials a...

Study question Does facilitated physical activity provide an effective treatment for adults with depression presenting in primary care? Summary answer Although trial participants receiving the physical activity intervention in addition to usual care reported increased physical activity compared with those receiving usual care alone, there was no e...

Highlights ► We present a summary/expanded abstract of a Cochrane of exercise interventions for smoking cessation. ► We outline the background, objectives, search strategy, selection criteria, and approach to data collection and analysis. ► We present the results for 15 trials. ► We present conclusions. ► We summarise the implications for practice...

The effectiveness of exercise referral schemes (ERS) is influenced by uptake and adherence to the scheme. The identification of factors influencing low uptake and adherence could lead to the refinement of schemes to optimise investment. To quantify the levels of ERS uptake and adherence and to identify factors predictive of uptake and adherence. A...

The TREAting Depression with physical activity (TREAD) study investigated the cost-effectiveness of a physical activity intervention, in addition to usual general practitioner care, as a treatment for people with depression. An individually randomised, pragmatic, multicentre randomised controlled trial with follow-up at 4, 8 and 12 months. A subset...

To investigate the effects of an acute exercise bout on affect and psychological well-being in individuals with type 2 diabetes. Sixteen patients (mean BMI 28.6 kg/m(2)) took part, on separate days, in two randomly ordered conditions, in a within-subject design: a 20 min semi-self-paced brisk walk or passive control (sitting with the opportunity of...

Background: Taking regular exercise may help people give up smoking by moderating nicotine withdrawal and cravings, and by helping to manage weight gain. Objectives: To determine whether exercise-based interventions alone, or combined with a smoking cessation programme, are more effective than a smoking cessation intervention alone. Search meth...

Smokers show heightened activation toward smoking-related stimuli and experience increased cravings which can precipitate smoking cessation relapse. Exercise can be effective for modulating cigarette cravings and attenuating reactivity to smoking cues, but the mechanism by which these effects occur remains uncertain. The objective of the study was...

The current study examines the relationships between physical activity and fitness and reactivity to a musical performance stressor (MPS). Numerous studies suggest that being fitter and more physically active has a beneficial effect on individuals' cardiovascular responses to laboratory-based mental challenges. The results are equivocal regarding t...

Exercise referral schemes (ERS) aim to identify inactive adults in the primary-care setting. The GP or health-care professional then refers the patient to a third-party service, with this service taking responsibility for prescribing and monitoring an exercise programme tailored to the needs of the individual. To assess the clinical effectiveness a...

Little is known about the therapeutic or iatrogenic effects of exercise in individuals with Bipolar Disorder, despite its potential to benefit physical and mental health. Consequently the aim of the current study was to gather data on experiences of the relationship between exercise and Bipolar Disorder from people with personal experience of the c...

Workplace snacking can contribute to obesity. Exercise reduces chocolate cravings but effects on chocolate consumption are unknown. This study investigated the effect of brief exercise on ad libitum consumption during breaks in a computerised task. Seventy-eight regular chocolate eaters, age: 24.90±8.15 years, BMI: 23.56±3.78 kg/m(2) abstained for...

Web figure 1: Meta-analysis of patients’ minutes spent in physical activity of at least moderate intensity per week, at 6-12 month follow-up

Web appendix 1: Literature search strategies

Web figure 3: Meta-analysis of patients’ total physical activity per week, at 6-12 month follow-up

Web table 3: Summary of weight and obesity measures at follow-up