Caroline Meyer

• PhD
• Professor at University of Warwick

Background Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the recommended first-line treatment for insomnia. However, scaling this proven effective intervention to areas of high need remains a challenge, necessitating sensitive adaptation and evaluation. Methods A randomised waitlist-controlled trial evaluated the efficacy of a hybrid digit...

Importance: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the recommended first-line treatment for insomnia. Dissemination of this proven effective treatment at scale in places where it is most needed remains a challenge and requires sensitive adaptation and evaluation.Objective: To determine whether a hybrid digital CBT-I and emotion regul...

Introduction Shift work can lead to sleep disturbances and insomnia during the sleeping period, as well as excessive sleepiness and fatigue during the waking period. While Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT-i) is recommended as the first line of treatment for insomnia, key elements of CBT-i, such as maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, can be ch...

Mental health symptoms are highly prevalent in university students and have been further exacerbated following the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to examine the prospective prediction of five mental health symptoms (anxiety, depression, insomnia, suicidality, substance misuse risk) on university non-completion. Baseline data were coll...

Background Recent advances in machine learning combined with the growing availability of digitized health records offer new opportunities for improving early diagnosis of depression. An emerging body of research shows that Electronic Health Records can be used to accurately predict cases of depression on the basis of individual’s primary care recor...

Background Depression is one of the most significant health conditions in personal, social, and economic impact. The aim of this review is to summarize existing literature in which machine learning methods have been used in combination with Electronic Health Records for prediction of depression. Methods Systematic literature searches were conducte...

Background Managing long-term sickness absence is challenging in countries where employers and managers have the main responsibility to provide return to work support, particularly for workers with poor mental health. Whilst long-term sick leave and return to work frameworks and guidance exist for employers, there are currently no structured return...

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a mental health disorder that has serious physical, emotional and social consequences. Whilst cognitive behavioural therapy for AN (CBT-AN) has demonstrated efficacy, there remains a global need to improve AN treatment. Compulsive exercise activity therapy (LEAP) is an active therapy consisting of the addition to CBT-AN of...

Background and aim: Digital interventions for depression and anxiety can be as effective as face-to-face therapy. In a bid to tackle findings that one in six workers experience some form of mental health problems, a potential avenue to deliver mental health interventions as stepped care models is through the workplace. This study aims to assess the...

Background Recent advances in machine learning combined with the growing availability of digitized health records offer new opportunities for improving early diagnosis of depression. An emerging body of research shows that Electronic Health Records can be used to accurately predict cases of depression on the basis of individual’s primary care recor...

BACKGROUND Mental health problems affect one in six workers annually and is one of the leading causes of sickness absence; with stress, anxiety, and depression being responsible for half of all working days lost in the UK. Line managers hold a primary role in preventing poor mental health within the workplace and, therefore, need to be equipped wit...

Background Mental health problems affect 1 in 6 workers annually and are one of the leading causes of sickness absence, with stress, anxiety, and depression being responsible for half of all working days lost in the United Kingdom. Primary interventions with a preventative focus are widely acknowledged as the priority for workplace mental health in...

Employees with mental health problems often struggle to remain in employment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these employees face multiple additional stressors, which are likely to worsen their mental health and work productivity. Currently, it is unclear how to best support employees with mental health problems (and their managers) to improve wellb...

Objective: CBT-T is a brief (10-week) cognitive-behavioral therapy for non-underweight eating disorders. This report describes the findings from a single center, single group, feasibility trial of online CBT-T in the workplace as an alternative to health service settings. Method: This trial was approved by the Biomedical and Scientific Research...

Background Managing long-term sickness absence is challenging in countries where employers and managers have the main responsibility to provide return to work support, particularly for workers with poor mental health. Whilst long-term sick leave and return to work frameworks and guidance exist for employers, there are currently no structured return...

Background Depression is one of the most significant health conditions in personal, social, and economic impact. The aim of this review is to summarize existing literature in which machine learning (ML) methods have been used in combination with Electronic Health Records (EHRs) for prediction of depression. Methods Systematic literature searches we...

Objective Motivation is considered essential in the treatment of anorexia nervosa (AN). However, the in-session nature of, and variables associated with, changes in motivation are only partially understood in this population. The aim of this study was to conduct an exploratory investigation of the in-session nature of motivation to change in people...

Introduction One in six workers experience some form of mental health problems at work costing the UK economy an estimated £70 billion/year. Digital interventions provide low cost and easily scalable delivery methods to implement psychological interventions in the workplace. This trial tests the feasibility of implementing a self-guided 8-week digi...

University is a time of significant transitions during a young adult's life, with delayed and shortened sleep and poor mental health a common occurrence. This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the effect of both multi-component and single-component sleep interventions on improving university students’ sleep and mental health. Five databa...

Background The cost of sickness absence has major social, psychological and financial implications for individuals and organisations. Return-to-work (RTW) interventions that support good quality communication and contact with the workplace can reduce the length of sickness absence by between 15 and 30 days. However, initiatives promoting a sustaina...

Introduction This trial tests the efficacy of implementing a hybrid digital cognitive–behavioural therapy for insomnia (dCBT-I) and emotion regulation (ER) in the workplace. The study protocol follows the SPIRIT (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Intervention Trials) 2013 recommendations. Methods and analysis This is a mixed methods eva...

Background Early COVID-19 research suggests a detrimental impact of the initial lockdown on young people's mental health. Aims We investigated mental health among university students and young adults after the first UK lockdown and changes in symptoms over 6 months. Method In total, 895 university students and 547 young adults not in higher educa...

Mental ill-health is the leading cause of sickness absence, creating a high economic burden. Workplace interventions aimed at supporting employers in the prevention of mental ill-health in the workforce are urgently required. Managing Minds at Work is a digital intervention aimed at supporting line managers in promoting better mental health at work...

Introduction: The Supporting Employees with Insomnia and Emotional Regulation Problems (SLEEP) pilot uses hybrid digital Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) to help working people address their sleep and emotion regulation problems, using cognitive, behavioural, and psychoeducation techniques. A process evaluation within this trial w...

The current research examines the relationships between mothers' experiences of the ways in which they were provided food as a child, their current eating behaviours, and their use of coercive food parenting practices with their own child. Mothers (N = 907 (M = 37 years, SD = 7.7)) completed an online/paper survey that included validated measures o...

The objective of this study was to qualitatively summarise the content of online news articles pertaining to food parenting practices and determine whether this content is substantiated by the scientific literature. News article data were identified and collected from United Kingdom online news published during 2010–2017 period using the News on th...

People make subjective judgments about the healthiness of different foods every day, and these judgments in turn influence their food choices and health outcomes. Despite the importance of such judgments, there are few quantitative theories about their psychological underpinnings. This article introduces a novel computational approach that can appr...

Family mealtimes can be important for supporting children's healthy development, yet the emotional context of mealtimes can vary considerably, likely impacting their overall success and enjoyment. Yet, despite having an important role, little is known about how parents emotionally experience mealtimes with their family. The first aim of the current...

Objective: CBT-T is a brief (10 sessions) version of cognitive behavioral therapy for non-underweight eating disorders. This report describes the protocol for a single center, single group, feasibility trial of online CBT-T in the workplace as an alternative to the health-service setting. By offering mental health services for eating disorders in...

Background It is not uncommon that university students may exhibit disordered eating behaviours because of the various challenging factors in their age-group. Research points to the high prevalence of subclinical eating disorders (EDs) that do not require clinical attention among young adults. We aimed to conduct a qualitative study among universit...

UNSTRUCTURED Objective: The primary objective of the study was to qualitatively summarise the content of online news articles pertaining to food parenting practices and to determine whether this content is substantiated by the scientific literature in this field. Method: News article data were identified and collected from UK online news published...

Background and aims: Request-a-bet services are a modern gambling product delivered via the social network Twitter, which allow sports bettors to design custom bets. The public nature of Twitter data provided a unique opportunity to investigate patterns of bettor preference and the bookmaker profit margin in soccer, the UK's favorite sport. Metho...

Background: The expansion of online gambling in the UK has been accompanied by an increase in the number of novel betting products, particularly for soccer. The present research investigates which types of sports bettors are the most likely to use novel gambling products called ‘custom sports bets’ (CSBs), which allow gamblers to create their own u...

Background:The expansion of online gambling in the UK has been accompanied by an increase inthe number of novel betting products, particularly for soccer. The present research investigates whichtypes of sports bettors are the most likely to use novel gambling products called‘custom sports bets’(CSBs), which allow gamblers to create their own unique...

This study examined mothers’ ( n = 9) mealtime experiences when caring for their son or daughter with anorexia nervosa through semi-structured interviews. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis identified three themes: (1) managing mealtime combat through accommodation and acceptance; (2) feeling isolated, inauthentic and ill-equipped and (3) a n...

Objective: Using calorie-counting and fitness-tracking technologies is concerning in relation to eating disorders. While studies in this area typically assess one aspect of use (e.g., frequency), engagement with a device or application is more complex. Consequently, important relationships between the use of these technologies and the eating disor...

Background: The expansion of online gambling in the UK has been accompanied by an increase in the number of novel betting products, particularly for soccer. The present research investigates which types of sports bettors are the most likely to use novel gambling products called "custom sports bets‟ (CSBs), which allow gamblers to create their own u...

Sports betting markets are a laboratory for studying probabilistic judgments in the field. Here we present a study of a new gambling product that allows customers to easily design custom bets via Twitter: a “request-a-bet” service. We use large volumes of Twitter data to demonstrate that soccer bettors use request-a-bet services to create “intuitiv...

Background: High levels of physical activity (PA) have long been described in patients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN). Despite the importance of measuring PA in this population, there are two important factors that remain unknown. First, it is not clear how accurate self-report measures of PA are among patients. Second, little is known about how clini...

Employees spend a large proportion of their time at work and typically consume a third of their total calories during the working day. Research suggests that the workplace environment can affect employees' eating behaviours, leading to various related health consequences. This systematic review aimed to identify and synthesize the evidence surround...

Objective: To explore differences in family mealtime characteristics and family mealtime emotions among adolescents who report engaging in binge-eating in comparison to those who do not. Method: Adolescents (N=495) recruited from UK schools/colleges reported on their family mealtime frequency and atmosphere, family mealtime emotions, anxiety, depr...

In-play gambling is a recent innovation allowing gambling to occur during the course of a sporting event, rather than merely before play commences. For years, in-play gambling has been marketed in the UK via adverts displaying current betting odds during breaks in televised soccer, e.g., “England to score in the first 20 minutes, 4-to-1.” Previous...

Citation: William Pennington, Debbi Marais, Caroline Meyer. The impact of intervention design on the efficacy of ehealth interventions in promoting long term weight-loss in adults: a systemic review. PROSPERO 2019 CRD42019131194 Available from: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42019131194

Background: Understanding the characteristics of commenters on mental health-related online forums is vital for the development of effective psychological interventions in these communities. The way in which commenters interact can enhance our understanding of their characteristics. Objective: Using eating disorder-related (EDR) forums as an exa...

Given the links between parental obesity and eating psychopathology in their children, it is important to understand the mechanisms via which unhealthy relationships with eating are passed from generation to generation. The aim was to review research focusing on food-related parenting practices (FPPs) used by parents with overweight/obesity. Web of...

Objective To explore the relationships between the use of food intake and activity monitoring tools with compulsive exercise, eating psychopathology, and psychological wellbeing. Method Participants (N = 352; mean age 21.90 years) indicated their use of activity and food intake monitoring tools, and completed the Compulsive Exercise Test (CET), Ea...

Given the links between parental obesity and eating psychopathology in their children, it is important to understand the mechanisms via which unhealthy relationships with eating are passed from parents to children. The aim was to review research focusing on food-related parenting practices (FPPs) used by parents with overweight/obesity. Web of Scie...

BACKGROUND Understanding the characteristics of commenters on mental health-related online discussion forums is vital for the development of effective psychological interventions in these communities. Previous research has typically investigated these characteristics using surveys or textual analyses of online content. However, the way in which com...

Commuting to and from work can constitute a significant proportion of a person’s day and can have a considerable impact on one’s well-being. Using the UK Time Use Survey (UKTUS) dataset, the experienced well-being effects of commuting, in terms of enjoyment, were evaluated relative to other daily activities. Commutes using passive modes of transpor...

Recent guidance from the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority states that gambling adverts should not “unduly pressure the audience to gamble.” Live-odds adverts display current betting odds during breaks in televised soccer, e.g., “Kylian Mbappe to score next, 9-to-1.” In this preprint, it is argued that the 63 “live-odds” TV adverts shown over 32...

Objective To compare the efficacy of the compuLsive Exercise Activity theraPy (LEAP) programme integrated with manualized cognitive behavioral therapy for anorexia nervosa (CBT‐AN) compared to CBT‐AN alone. Method Seventy‐eight adults were randomized to CBT‐AN, delivered with or without eight embedded sessions of LEAP, for a total of 34 individual...

2nd Highest Scoring Abstract: Doctoral Background In the UK, over 80% of the population commute; this figure, as well as the distance and duration of commutes, is increasing. A growing body of research shows that commuting is detrimental to people's subjective well-being. Understanding the complexities of this relationship is crucial. This study a...

2ndHighest Scoring Abstract: Doctoral Background In the UK, over 80% of the population commute; this figure, as well as the distance and duration of commutes, is increasing. A growing body of research shows that commuting is detrimental to people's subjective well-being. Understanding the complexities of this relationship is crucial. This study ai...

Despite widespread use of behavioral observations to evaluate child feeding behaviors in research and clinical practice, few studies have comprehensively characterized mealtimes or identified features that differentiate children with and without disordered feeding; these were the aims of the current study. Mealtime observations were conducted for 1...

Given that many eating behaviours and food preferences develop early in childhood and track across childhood, adolescence and into adulthood, interest has grown in the developmental trajectory of these behaviours. The aims of this study were twofold. First, to explore whether maternal reports of child eating behaviour and feeding practices are vali...

Objective Text‐mining offers a technique to identify and extract information from a large corpus of textual data. As an example, this study presents the application of text‐mining to assess and compare interest in fitness tracking technology across eating disorder and health‐related online communities. Method A list of fitness tracking technology...

Background For people with anorexia nervosa (AN), compulsive exercise is characterized by extreme concerns about the perceived negative consequences of stopping/reducing exercise, dysregulation of affect, and inflexible exercise routines. It is associated with increased eating disorder psychopathology and poor clinical outcome. However, its relatio...

Background: Digital interventions for weight management provide a unique opportunity to target daily lifestyle choices and eating behaviors over a sustained period of time. However, recent evidence has demonstrated a lack of user engagement with digital health interventions, impacting on the levels of intervention effectiveness. Thus, it is critic...

The present study assessed the suitability of the Compulsive Exercise Test (athlete version; CET-A) for identifying female athletes with clinically significant features related to or comparable with eating psychopathology. Three hundred and sixty-one female athletes (including 12 with a clinically diagnosed eating disorder) completed the Eating Dis...

This study aimed to explore differences between mothers with healthy weight versus overweight/obesity in a wide range of their reported child feeding practices and their reports of their children's eating behaviours. Mothers (N = 437) with a 2-6-year-old child participated. They comprised two groups, based on their BMI: healthy weight (BMI of 18.0–...

Having a high athletic identity is thought to increase vulnerability for compulsive exercise and Eating Disorder (ED) psychopathology. This study examined whether there is an association between athletic identity and levels of compulsive exercise and ED psychopathology in long-distance runners. A sample of 501 long-distance runners completed the At...

Clinical eating disorders are common among athletes; however research has yet to explore the process of seeking and receiving treatment for an eating disorder in this population. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 female athletes currently receiving treatment for an eating disorder. A total of three themes emerged: challenges to trea...

Objective: Examine relationships between parental mealtime strategies used in the family meal session of family-based treatment (FBT) and adolescent outcomes at EOT (session 20). Method: Eighteen families with an adolescent receiving FBT-AN participated. Parental strategies during videoed family meals were assessed using a family mealtime coding...

Objective: Compulsive exercise is a prominent feature for the majority of patients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN), but there is a dearth of research evaluating assessment instruments. This study assessed the concurrent validity of the exercise items of the Eating Disorder Examination (EDE) and Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q), with th...

Background This study aimed to determine the psychometric properties of the Compulsive Exercise Test (CET) among an adult sample of patients with eating disorders. Method Three hundred and fifty six patients and 360 non-clinical control women completed the CET and the Eating Disorders Examination questionnaire (EDE-Q). ResultsA confirmatory factor...

Research has yet to identify specific predictors of poor psychological well-being and quality of life in transgender people. This study aimed first to explore the predictive value of five factors known to be associated with poor psychological well-being in cis- and transgender people; age, self-esteem, victimisation, interpersonal problems, and bod...

The aim of this study was to explore how the structure of mealtimes within the family setting is related to children's fussy eating behaviours. Seventy-five mothers of children aged between 2 and 4 years were observed during a typical mealtime at home. The mealtimes were coded to rate mealtime structure and environment as well as the child's eating...

The sport literature has produced equivocal results as to whether sport participation is a protective or risk factor for disordered eating. One mechanism by which it could be a risk factor is the increased drive or compulsion to exercise. This study compared the levels of disordered eating and compulsive exercise between adolescent sport and non-sp...

Few studies have examined the relative impact of co-occurring child characteristics on problematic feeding behavior. The aim of the current study was to assess the relative contributions of parent-perceived child characteristics in multivariable models of child feeding behavior. One hundred sixty-one mothers reported on their child's feeding behavi...

Objectives: Trans people have been found to have high levels of depression. In view of the association between interpersonal problems and depression and the importance of interpersonal skills to navigate the transition of trans people, this study aims to investigate levels of interpersonal problems among treatment-seeking trans men and women, and t...

Compulsive exercise in anorexia nervosa (AN) has been associated with adverse effects in treatment, and is a major risk factor for relapse. However, exercise is often surreptitious and measurement problematic. For example, females in community samples have been found to over-report physical activity when compared to objective assessment. The curren...

Although a number of studies have looked at what factors might mediate the relationship between symptoms and quality of life (QoL) in a number of psychiatric disorders, little research has addressed this issue in eating disorders. In the current study, female undergraduates (N = 339) completed questionnaires assessing eating disorder symptoms, soci...

This study aims to determine the prevalence rate of current non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among trans individuals, in comparison with a control sample of non-trans adults. It also aims to compare those with current NSSI and those with no history of NSSI in terms of psychological well-being, self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, social support and de...

Competitive bodybuilding is associated with the development of eating pathology, poor social functioning, heightened anxiety, and pathological exercise regimes. This longitudinal study examined competitive bodybuilders (CBs) to assess the severity and temporal stability of these variables during the course of a competitive bodybuilding season. At s...

Objective: To examine the range and frequency of parental mealtime strategies used during the family meal session of Family-Based Treatment (FBT) for adolescent anorexia nervosa, and to explore the relationships between parental mealtime strategies, mealtime emotional tone and parental 'success' at encouraging adolescent food consumption. Method:...

Exercise can be used as a mood regulator but, in the eating disorder literature, exercise has sometimes been found to be compulsive, detrimental to physical health, and regarded as one maladaptive strategy used to regulate emotions. This study examined longitudinal associations between emotion regulation styles and this compulsive exercise in 572 a...

In the current study, we had two aims. First, we investigated the associations between eating psychopathology, situational interpersonal diffculties, and dis-positional interpersonal diffculties among athletes and nonathletes. Second, we examined the mediating role of self-critical perfectionism, self-esteem, and depression in these associations. A...

This study aimed to examine the factor structure of the Mealtime Emotions Measure for adolescents (MEM-A), a novel measure of emotional responses experienced during family mealtimes. Additionally, it examined gender differences in mealtime emotions and also the relationships between mealtime emotions and levels of eating psychopathology, when contr...

This is a two-study paper that developed a measure to assess parenting practices related to children's physical activity and explored maternal predictors of such parenting practices. Study 1: A self-report measure of parents' activity-related practices (the Parenting Related to Activity Measure) was developed, and a principal component analysis was...

Compulsive exercise is associated with unhealthy outcomes and is common among eating disorder populations. This study aimed to replicate previous cross-sectional work by considering psychological characteristics as longitudinal predictors of compulsive exercise. A sample of 369 adolescents (n = 221 female, n = 148 male) completed measures of compul...

This study examined the associations between conscientious perfectionism (high standards), self-evaluative perfectionism (self-criticism) and eating psychopathology among dancers. A sample of 244 female dancers, with a mean age of 20.11 years (standard deviation = 1.97) completed the Perfectionism Inventory and Eating Disorder Examination Questionn...

The risk factors for compulsive exercise are unknown. This study aims to explore longitudinal sociocultural risk factors for compulsive exercise, using a 12-month prospective design. A sample of 332 male and female adolescents (aged 13–15 years at baseline) completed self-report measures of sociocultural risk factors and compulsive exercise at base...

Introduction: There is a paucity of research in the area of social support and psychological well-being among people with gender dysphoria. Aims: The present study aimed to investigate levels of social support among individuals with gender dysphoria compared with a matched control group. It also aimed to examine the relationship between social s...

This study aimed to explore how track and field coaches respond to athletes with eating problems. Eleven experienced coaches participated in semi-structured interviews exploring their responses to, and challenges faced when, working with athletes with eating problems. The analysis revealed three themes relating to the strategies employed by coaches...

Abstract Within the clinical literature it is accepted that there is a strong connection between eating disorders and depression; however the nature of the casual relationship is somewhat unclear. Therefore the aim of the present study was to determine the prospective relationship between eating psychopathology and depressive symptoms among competi...

This study assessed the 5 factor structure of the Compulsive Exercise Test and explored the relationship between compulsive exercise and eating psychopathology in athletes. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses of the Compulsive Exercise Test were conducted with 689 competitive athletes (aged 18 to 35 years). Convergent validity with the Eat...

Characteristics of family mealtimes are associated with disordered eating behaviours. However, little is known about the relationships between characteristics of family mealtimes and disordered eating attitudes, or how symptoms of anxiety or depression may contribute to these relationships. This study therefore aimed to examine differences between...

To examine the factor structure of the EDE-Q among a sample of adolescents. A community-based sample of 917 adolescents (522 girls and 395 boys) aged 14-18 years completed the EDE-Q version 6.0 as part of a larger study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two subsamples to enable separate analyses. A confirmatory factor analysis on the o...