A qualitative study of men's behavioural changes during weight loss maintenance.

AIM: This study aims to understand the behaviour changes men who attended a weight loss programme engage in during weight maintenance. Understanding the needs of men in the context of weight loss maintenance is important, as they are underrepresented in this body of literature. METHOD: Given its focus on personal experience, this study adopted a qualitative design. Semi-structured interviews supported by participant-generated photo-elicitation techniques to explore the behavioural changes 12 men engaged in 6 months after attending a men-only weight loss programme. Data analysis was undertaken through thematic analysis and Gleeson's polytextual thematic analysis. RESULTS: This study suggests that the key behaviours men engaged in to maintain weight loss can be classified into four categories: (1) 'Small' changes, (2) Informed decisions, (3) Monitoring of behaviours, and (4) Dealing with ambivalence. CONCLUSION: This study makes an original contribution to knowledge and can have important implications for practice in the area of men's health, particularly with regard to the long-term impact of weight loss interventions.

Serum 99th centile values for two heart-type fatty acid binding protein assays.

BACKGROUND: We have previously demonstrated that heart-type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP) is an independent prognostic marker for survival after acute coronary syndrome (ACS). This study aimed to define the 99th centile values for H-FABP as determined with two different assays, and to study the relationship with age, gender and renal function. METHODS: H-FABP was measured on redundant routine outpatient samples using the MARKIT-M (Dainippon) and the Evidence Investigator (Randox) assays. RESULTS: Two hundred and forty-two subjects with Siemens Ultra-TnI value <0.045 microg/L (99th centile) were studied. In all, 174 subjects had estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) >60 mL/min. The 99th centile values for subjects with eGFR >60 mL/min for the Evidence Investigator H-FABP were 5.3 and 5.8 microg/L and for the MARKIT-M H-FABP were 8.3 and 9.1 microg/L in female and male subjects, respectively. There is an increase in H-FABP with age in subjects with normal renal function for both assays. Gender comparison showed no significant difference for either assay. Comparison of samples showed that subjects with eGFR <60 mL/min showed a median increase of 0.71 microg/L with Evidence Investigator assay and 1.09 microg/L with MARKIT-M assay compared with subjects with eGFR >60 mL/min. Calibration differences were confirmed by cross measurement of calibrators and recombinant H-FABP. CONCLUSIONS: We have defined the 99th centile values for H-FABP in a population of primary and secondary care outpatients that can be used to risk stratify patients with ACS. We have confirmed that H-FABP increases with renal dysfunction and age, but have not confirmed the gender difference previously reported.