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Method development (including dietary behaviour)

In many areas, obesity research is limited by a need for improved methodology. In particular, accurate, informative but scalable measurement techniques applicable to large studies are required. For example, the assessment of energy expenditure by doubly-labelled water is accurate but too expensive and time-consuming to be applied to large cohorts. Developments in the following areas would be especially useful:

  • Measurement of dietary habits (including food intake and eating behaviour).
  • Measurement of physical activity and sedentary behaviour.
  • Better (statistical) methods for evaluating natural experiments and for designing experiments in natural settings.
  • Models for feeding behaviour.

Given that many of these areas are technically complicated, the best results are likely to come from collaborations between health researchers and researchers in other technical and mathematical sciences such as engineering and statistics.

Priorities for MRC obesity research Mechanisms of obesity and associated disease Neuroscience of obesity Prevention and intervention: obesity and links to disease Physical activity Ethnicity and obesity Bariatric surgery as a research tool Global health Method development (including dietary behaviour)