Charles Abraham

Charles Abraham
University of Exeter | UoE · Medical School

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315
Publications
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Publications

Publications (315)
Article
Full-text available
Background Empirical research indicates that impulsive processes that operate below conscious monitoring can undermine peoples’ attempts to change behaviour patterns, especially those that have become habitual. This may, therefore, be a serious challenge for those trying to lose weight. A novel smartphone app-based intervention (ImpulsePal) offers...
Article
Full-text available
Background Impulsive processes driving eating behaviour can often undermine peoples’ attempts to change their behaviour, lose weight and maintain weight loss. Aim To develop an impulse management intervention to support weight loss in adults. Methods Intervention Mapping (IM) was used to systematically develop the “ImpulsePal” intervention. The d...
Article
Full-text available
Background Rates of participation in centre (hospital)-cardiac rehabilitation by patients with heart failure are suboptimal. Heart failure has two main phenotypes differing in underlying pathophysiology: heart failure with reduced ejection fraction is characterised by depressed left ventricular systolic function (‘reduced ejection fraction’), where...
Article
Full-text available
Background Whilst almost 50% of heart failure (HF) patients have preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), evidence-based treatment options for this patient group remain limited. However, there is growing evidence of the potential value of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation. This study reports the process evaluation of the Rehabilitation Enablement i...
Article
Attitudes towards travel mode choice have been regarded as bi-polar evaluations of travel options that remain stable across time and context. Intra-personal attitudes can be variable, becoming more or less salient and changing in strength or valence across decisional contexts. This study draws on theoretical underpinnings of attitudinal ambivalence...
Article
Full-text available
Violence prevention programs aim to raise awareness, change attitudes, normative beliefs, motivation, and behavioral responses. Many programs have been developed and evaluated, and optimistic claims about effectiveness made. Yet comprehensive guidance on program design, implementation, and evaluation is limited. The aim of this study was to provide...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Although there is trial evidence that complex interventions are effective for the self-management of heart failure, little evidence supports their effectiveness in routine practice. We used Social Practice Theory to guide a Type 1 Hybrid Trial: a mixed methods process evaluation of a complex intervention for heart failure. The objectiv...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Whilst heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) affects almost 50 percent of the HF population, evidence-based treatment options remain limited. However, there is emerging evidence of the potential value of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation. This study reports the process evaluation conducted as part of the REACH-...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Whilst heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) affects almost 50 percent of the HF population, evidence-based treatment options remain limited. However, there is emerging growing evidence of the potential value of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation. This study reports the process evaluation of the Rehabilitation E...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Whilst heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) affects almost 50 percent of the HF population, evidence-based treatment options remain limited. However, there is growing evidence of the potential value of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation. This study reports the process evaluation of the Rehabilitation Enablement...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Whilst almost 50 percent of heart failure (HF) patients have preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), evidence-based treatment options for this patient group remain limited. However, there is growing evidence of the potential value of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation. This study reports the process evaluation of the Rehabilitation Enab...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose: Alcohol education must ensure that young people have appropriate information, motivation, and skills. This paper describes the fifth phase in a programme of intervention development based on principles of social marketing and intervention mapping. The aim was to enhance Drink Refusal Self-Efficacy (DRSE) and help develop skills for non-dri...
Article
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Objective: This two-site randomised trial compared the effectiveness of a voluntary sector-led, community-based diabetes prevention programme to a waiting-list control group at 6 months, and included an observational follow-up of the intervention arm to 12 months. Methods: Adults aged 18-75 years at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes d...
Article
Full-text available
Objective To identify and explore change processes explaining the effects of the Rehabilitation Enablement in Chronic Heart Failure (REACH-HF) intervention taking account of reach, amount of intervention received, delivery fidelity and patient and caregiver perspectives. Design Mixed methods process evaluation parallel to a randomised controlled t...
Article
Full-text available
Cities are responding to their growing transportation demands in different ways. We interviewed city dwellers in two cities, Singapore and London, with highly developed transport infrastructure to understand individual transport decisions and experiences in the context of two different city cultures that support distinct transport policies. Compare...
Article
Objectives: Although many health interventions are delivered in groups, it is unclear how group context can be best used to promote health-related behaviour change and what change processes are most helpful to participants. This study explored participants' experiences of attending type 2 diabetes prevention and management programme, and their per...
Article
Full-text available
Group-based interventions are widely used to promote health-related behaviour change. While processes operating in groups have been extensively described, it remains unclear how behaviour change is generated in group-based health-related behaviour-change interventions. Understanding how such interventions facilitate change is important to guide int...
Article
Full-text available
Background Theories and meta-analyses have elucidated individual-level mechanisms of action in behaviour change interventions. Although group-based interventions are commonly used to support health-related behaviour change, such interventions rarely consider theory and research (e.g. from social psychology) on how group-level mechanisms can also in...
Article
Full-text available
Background In western countries, men who have sex with men (MSM) are most affected by HIV and increasingly likely to engage in risky sexual behaviour. MSM who experience a potential sexual exposure to HIV (PEPSE) and receive a preventative regimen of anti-HIV treatment are at particularly high risk of acquiring HIV and could potentially benefit fro...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Caregivers frequently provide support to people living with long-term conditions. However, there is paucity of evidence of interventions that support caregivers in their role. Rehabilitation EnAblement in Chronic Heart Failure (REACH-HF) is a novel home-based, health-professional-facilitated, self-management programme for patients with...
Article
Full-text available
Objective To evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the Takeaway Masterclass, a three-hour training session delivered to staff of independent takeaway food outlets that promoted healthy cooking practices and menu options. Design A mixed-methods study design. All participating food outlets provided progress feedback at 6 weeks post-intervent...
Article
Encouraging the purchase of low-emission vehicles could reduce the environmental impact of growing global car ownership. To date, however, there is relatively little research into the degree to which environmental features, such as reduced CO2 emissions, are considered important when reflecting on car purchase decisions using large representative s...
Article
Full-text available
Background: The REACH-HF (Rehabilitation EnAblement in CHronic Heart Failure) trial found that the REACH-HF home-based cardiac rehabilitation intervention resulted in a clinically meaningful improvement in disease-specific health-related quality of life in patients with reduced ejection fraction heart failure (HFrEF). The aims of this study were t...
Article
Full-text available
Background The REACH-HF (Rehabilitation EnAblement in CHronic Heart Failure) trial found that the REACH-HF home-based intervention resulted in a clinically meaningful improvement in disease-specific health-related quality of life in patients with reduced ejection fraction heart failure (HFrEF). The aim of this study was to assess the longterm cost-...
Article
Full-text available
Background Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) continue to represent a major public health challenge. There is evidence that behavioural interventions to reduce risky sexual behaviours can reduce STI rates in patients attending sexual health (SH) services. However, it is not known if these interventions are effective when implemented at scale in...
Data
Supplemental material for The effects and costs of home-based rehabilitation for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: The REACH-HF multicentre randomized controlled trial
Article
Full-text available
Background The internet is a potentially promising medium for delivering weight loss interventions. The current study sought to explore factors that might influence primary care patients’ initial uptake and continued use (up to four-weeks) of such programmes to help inform the development of novel, or refinement of existing, weight management inter...
Article
Human and environmental health are important globally. Reduced car use could improve human health by promoting physical activity and consequent decreases in carbon dioxide emissions would help achieve greenhouse gas emissions targets. The aim of this study was to explore how travellers evaluate seven transport choices. We compared the evaluative sp...
Article
Background: Physical activity guidelines state that children should achieve at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on each day of the week. Accurate assessment of adherence to these guidelines should, ideally, include measurement over 7 days. When less than 7 days of data are available, researchers often report the av...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Cardiac rehabilitation improves health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and reduces hospitalizations in patients with heart failure, but international uptake of cardiac rehabilitation for heart failure remains low. Design and methods: The aim of this multicentre randomized trial was to compare the REACH-HF (Rehabilitation EnAblement i...
Article
Background Home-based models of cardiac rehabilitation may overcome suboptimal rates of participation. Aim This study sought to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a novel healthcare professional facilitated home-based comprehensive self-management REACH-HF rehabilitation intervention for patients with heart failure with preserved ejection...
Conference Paper
Introduction Evidence from systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomised trials has led the National Institute of health and Care Excellence (NICE) and international guideline bodies to recommend centre-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) as an effective and safe intervention for heart failure. CR reduces the risk of hospitalisations and improve...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction: Home-based cardiac rehabilitation may overcome suboptimal rates of participation. The overarching aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the novel Rehabilitation EnAblement in CHronic Hear Failure (REACH-HF) rehabilitation intervention for patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFp...
Article
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess children's compliance with wrist-worn accelerometry during a randomized controlled trial and to examine whether compliance differed by allocated condition or gender. Methods: A total of 886 children within the Healthy Lifestyles Programme trial were randomly allocated to wear a GENEActiv accelerom...
Article
Personal car use is increasing globally and is an important contributor to poor air quality and global greenhouse gas emissions. Although individuals have little direct control over some emission sources (e.g. heavy industry), they can modify their car use thereby reducing their own contribution. There have been many attempts to understand the psyc...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Small groups are used to promote health, well-being, and personal change by altering members' perceptions, beliefs, expectations, and behaviour patterns. An extensive cross-disciplinary literature has articulated and tested theories explaining how such groups develop, function, and facilitate change. Yet these theoretical understanding...
Article
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Background: Many weight-loss interventions are delivered in groups but evidence on their effectiveness, and characteristics associated with effectiveness, is limited. We synthesised evidence on (1) design and delivery of group-based weight-loss interventions; (2) effectiveness; and (3) associations between intervention characteristics, change tech...
Article
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Background: Much of the food available from takeaways, pubs and restaurants particularly that sold by independent outlets, is unhealthy and its consumption is increasing. These food outlets are therefore important potential targets for interventions to improve diet and thus prevent diet related chronic diseases. Local authorities in England have b...
Article
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Background Approximately one-third of children in England leave primary school overweight or obese. There is little evidence of effective obesity prevention programmes for children in this age group. Objective To determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a school-based healthy lifestyles programme in preventing obesity in children aged...
Article
Full-text available
Background Although childhood overweight and obesity prevalence has increased substantially worldwide in the past three decades, scarce evidence exists for effective preventive strategies. We aimed to establish whether a school-based intervention for children aged 9–10 years would prevent excessive weight gain after 24 months. Methods This pragmat...
Article
Full-text available
Background The Healthy Lifestyles Programme (HeLP) was a novel school-located intervention for 9–10 year olds, designed to prevent obesity by changing patterns of child behaviour through the creation of supportive school and home environments using dynamic and creative delivery methods. This paper reports on both the quantitative and qualitative da...
Conference Paper
Background Groups are often used to promote personal and health-related psychological and behavioural change. Although there is considerable literature on group dynamics and intra- and inter-personal change processes in groups, this knowledge is dispersed across different disciplines and rarely used in the design, delivery and evaluation of group-b...
Article
Full-text available
Older adults’ negative beliefs about ageing are related to their health and functioning, but little is known about how perceptions of ageing (POA) relate to frailty status. This study aimed to explore the relationship between POA and frailty. Secondary analysis of data used were from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing Waves 2 and 5. A POA sco...
Article
Reduced private car use can limit greenhouse gas emissions and improve public health. It is unclear, however, how promotion of alternative transport choices can be optimised. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to identify potentially modifiable cognitive mechanisms that have been related to car use and use of alternative transport...
Article
Full-text available
Background Ready-to-eat meals (to eat in, to take away or to be delivered) sold by food outlets are often more energy dense and nutrient poor compared with meals prepared at home, making them a reasonable target for public health intervention. The aim of the research presented in this paper was to systematically identify and describe interventions...
Article
Full-text available
Background Ready-to-eat meals (to eat in, to take away or to be delivered) sold by food outlets are often more energy dense and nutrient poor compared with meals prepared at home, making them a reasonable target for public health intervention. The aim of the research presented in this paper was to systematically identify and describe interventions...
Article
Full-text available
INTRODUCTION: Ready-to-eat meals sold by food outlets that are accessible to the general public are an important target for public health intervention. We conducted a systematic review to assess the impact of such interventions. METHODS: Studies of any design and duration that included any consumer-level or food-outlet-level before-and-after data w...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction: Ready-to-eat meals sold by food outlets that are accessible to the general public are an important target for public health intervention. We conducted a systematic review to assess the impact of such interventions. Methods: Studies of any design and duration that included any consumer-level or food-outlet-level before-and-after dat...
Article
Background: Children with disabilities are often the target of prejudice from their peers. The effects of prejudice include harmful health consequences. The Contact Hypothesis has previously shown to promote positive attitudes towards a range of social groups. Objective: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effectiveness of sc...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction The Rehabilitation EnAblement in CHronic Heart Failure in patients with Heart Failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (REACH-HFpEF) pilot trial is part of a research programme designed to develop and evaluate a facilitated, home-based, self-help rehabilitation intervention to improve self-care and quality of life (QoL) in heart f...
Article
Full-text available
Background: We aimed to establish the support needs of people with heart failure and their caregivers and develop an intervention to improve their health-related quality of life. Methods: We used intervention mapping to guide the development of our intervention. We identified "targets for change" by synthesising research evidence and internation...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: This systematic review aimed to (a) identify and categorize techniques used to modify or manage impulsive processes associated with unhealthy eating behavior, (b) describe the mechanisms targeted by such techniques, and (c) summarize available evidence on the effectiveness of these techniques. Method: Searches of 5 bibliographic datab...
Article
Background: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are more common in young people and men who have sex with men (MSM) and effective in-service interventions are needed. Methods: A systematic review of randomized control trials (RCTs) of waiting-room-delivered, self-delivered and brief healthcare-provider-delivered interventions designed to redu...
Article
Sail training refers to sea voyages designed to foster personal and social change. Such training has mainly involved young people but may have the potential to benefit adults who are recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. During the voyage described here clients in drug rehabilitation centres across the UK were given the opportunity to partici...
Article
Background: The use of Internet and related technologies for promoting weight management (WM), physical activity (PA), or dietary-related behaviours has been examined in many articles and systematic reviews. This overview aims to summarize and assess the quality of the review evidence specifically focusing on mobile and Web 2.0 technologies, which...
Conference Paper
Daily commutes form an integral part of the urban dweller’s life but much remains unknown about these decisions are made and its consequent wellbeing implications. With the landscape of an ever-increasing population density in cities, transport infrastructures are also tested to the limits. This has resulted in congestions and degradation of air qu...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Behaviour change interventions are likely to be reproducible only if reported clearly. We assessed whether the behaviour change technique taxonomy version 1 (BCTTv1), with and without training in identifying BCTs, improves the clarity and replicability of written reports of observed behaviour change interventions. Methods: Three stud...