London & South East

London & South East

• Dr Zeynep Nas, Dr Jessica Packer, Dr Dimitrios Koutoukidis

• Email Us

• University College London & Oxford University, Oxford

The London & Southeast ASO Network aims to connect students, academics, practitioners, and policymakers across the London and South of England region who share an interest in obesity. The network is open to foster collaboration, facilitate knowledge exchange, and explores links between obesity and related health and social outcomes. Supporting early career researchers (ECRs) and including them in broader ASO events and networks is a key priority, with several ECRs featured in past meetings.

The network intends to host at least one annual meeting, bringing together national and regional voices, and welcomes partnerships with other organisations and networks. Meetings are open to anyone interested in obesity, particularly researchers, clinicians, health services, local authorities, public health professionals, obesity service commissioners, and academics. Details of upcoming events will be published on this page.

The London & Southeast Network is co-led by Dr Zeynep Nas, Post-doctoral Researcher at University College London (z.nas.17@ucl.ac.uk), Dr Jessica Packer, Postdoctoral researcher at University College London (jessica.packer@ucl.ac.uk) and Dr Dimitrios Koutoukidis, Senior Researcher at the University of Oxford (dimitrios.koutoukidis@phc.ox.ac.uk). Please contact us with any ideas you may have for meetings or events or if you would simply like to get more involved with the network.

Meetings

There are no meetings currently scheduled.

Past Meetings

Exploring the intersection between obesity & disordered eating

13th June 2024, University College London (In-person)

Obesity can co-occur with mental health difficulties, including disordered eating. This half-day event hosted at University College London brought together several experts exploring this intersection, providing an overview of their research and future directions.

Speakers and talk titles:

• Dr Moritz Herle, King’s College London – ‘Genetic links between obesity and disordered eating’
• Dr Ivonne Derks, University College London – ‘Early childhood appetitive traits and eating disorder symptoms in adolescence’
• Gabriella Heuchan, University College London – ‘Disordered eating in children & adolescents’
• Elena Tsompanaki, Oxford University – ‘Weight loss in type 2 diabetes remission and disordered eating; does looking after the body take a toll on the mind?’
• Dr Tamla Evans & Dawn Power, Leeds Beckett University – ‘Obesity Research at Leeds Beckett University: Emotional and Disordered Eating’

Attendees had the opportunity to network with others during lunch and engage with the speakers following their presentations. The London & Southeast network committee were thrilled with the level of interest in the event, and the interactive discussion that the meeting promoted.

ASO London Network and the Adult COMs Network meeting

The ASO hosted an inaugural meeting of the London Network together with the launch of the Adult COMs Network in London on December 2nd, 2015 at the University of Liverpool London Campus.

The meeting was attended by 40 delegates including clinicians, researchers and policy-makers. The meeting topic came about after a provocative recent publication (Fildes et al; Am J Public Health: 105: e54-9) highlighted the low probability of an obese adult losing weight, and the difficulties in maintaining even small amounts of weight loss. This sparked discussion among the London ASO Regional Group Committee about the ineffectiveness of current weight loss interventions, and the need for new approaches. The focus of the first meeting was therefore ‘novel approaches to behaviour change in obesity’.

The speakers covered a range of topics from management of obesity in primary care, to novel interventions for the prevention and management of obesity at the individual level, to the potential for policy changes to effect weight at a population level.  The ASO Chair, Professor Pinki Sahota also launched the ASO Adult COMs network with the aim of strengthening and advancing the evidence base, improving practice and influencing policy for the management of obesity in adults within the UK.

Details of the presentations and speakers can be found in the programme. The slides from each of the talks can be viewed below.

The London Network committee were delighted with the level of interest in the talks, and the interactive discussion that the meeting promoted. We encourage delegates to contact us (Dr Clare Llewellyn; c.llewellyn@ucl.ac.uk) with ideas for future meetings or training days.

Speaker Presentations

ASO Adult COM’s Launch – Professor Pinki Sahota

Management of obesity in primary care – Dr Helen Booth

The role of habit formation in weight management – Dr Benjamin Gardener

Taxing sugar-sweetened beverages – Malcolm Clark

Other Contacts

• Dr Dimitrios Koutoukidis
• dimitrios.koutoukidis@phc.ox.ac.uk