Paula Wittels

Bio: Paula Wittels is an academic researcher from Brunel University London. The author has contributed to research in topics: Public health & Life expectancy. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 8 citations.

Weight stigma, fat pedagogy and rediscovering the pleasures of movement: experiencing physical activity and fatness in a public health weight management programme

Abstract: Physical activity is typically part of public health weight management programmes in the UK, but despite critical debate about obesity science and discourse, fatness and physical activity, the focu...

The Family Is My Priority: How Motherhood Frames Participation in Physical Activity in a Group of Mothers Living in a Low Socioeconomic Status Area

Abstract: Socioeconomic status (SES) is known to influence strongly both life expectancy and healthy life expectancy. Whilst there are multiple factors with complex interactions that provide the explanation for this observation, differences in the uptake of physical activity between high and low SES groups play a role. This in-depth qualitative study set out to understand the response of a group of mothers with young children living in a low SES area of a London (UK) borough to the current physical activity guidance and to investigate whether existing and established interventions based on behavior change are appropriate for this group. A series of three in depth interviews was carried out with the mothers (n = 20) over a period of 16 months, and the data collected were analyzed thematically. Four main themes were identified: (1) mothering comes before exercise; (2) mothers are a special case; (3) alone or together; and (4) facilities fail mothers. The mothers were unsure about the benefits of exercise, whether it was relevant for them and how to accommodate exercise alongside their mothering responsibilities. Family and peer group could be both a barrier and a facilitator to participation in physical activity. Without an in depth understanding of the role of physical activity in the lives of mothers of young children, behavior change-based public interventions are likely to fail to meet the needs of this group. A reduction in the current health inequities will only be possible when the needs of the mothers are acknowledged and used as the basis of appropriate public health guidance.

Adopting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle in low SES families: How the experience of motherhood shapes responses to dietary and physical activity public health guidance

Abstract: Public health guidance and associated interventions seek to bring about change in diet and physical activity behaviours to improve life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in the population. Low socioeconomic status (SES) groups suffer from reduced life/healthy life expectancy compared with the population as a whole. This in-depth qualitative study, investigates the lives and experiences of mothers with young children living in a low SES area in a London (UK) borough, to understand the context in which current public health guidance on diet and physical activity is received and viewed, and how this understanding could be used to inform the development of public health guidance and interventions for this group.The mothers (n = 20), were recruited from a Surestart Centre, Children's Centres and through the local branch of a national charity. The mothers took part in a series of three in depth interviews over two years (2016-2017). Thematic analysis was used to generate an iterative set of codes informing an understanding of motherhood, diet and physical activity.Motherhood was found to be a major factor for understanding and interpreting how women in low SES areas respond to public health guidance on diet and physical activity. The mothers were well informed about dietary guidance, considered that provision of healthy food was critical to the mothering role, but found it difficult to implement the guidance in their own lives. In contrast, physical activity was not seen as integral to the mothering role, although it was acknowledged that it played a part in ensuring that the mothers remained healthy enough to fulfil all their duties. Constrained by the ethic of care, and a lack of material and time resources, the mothers prioritised their family's health above their own. This study, enabled the mothers to articulate ideas for interventions that would be supportive of a healthy lifestyle and of practical application in their busy lives.Mothers from this low SES area responded differently to the public health guidance on diet and on physical activity. Whilst providing and modelling a healthy diet was seen as an essential part of the mother's role, participating in leisure based physical activity was problematic, and unless carefully framed, could be perceived as selfish behaviour, inappropriate for the "good" mother.

A New Application of Social Impact in Social Media for Overcoming Fake News in Health.

Abstract: One of the challenges today is to face fake news (false information) in health due to its potential impact on people's lives. This article contributes to a new application of social impact in social media (SISM) methodology. This study focuses on the social impact of the research to identify what type of health information is false and what type of information is evidence of the social impact shared in social media. The analysis of social media includes Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. This analysis contributes to identifying how interactions in these forms of social media depend on the type of information shared. The results indicate that messages focused on fake health information are mostly aggressive, those based on evidence of social impact are respectful and transformative, and finally, deliberation contexts promoted in social media overcome false information about health. These results contribute to advancing knowledge in overcoming fake health-related news shared in social media.

Leisure and health – critical commentary

Abstract: This critical commentary presents a selected overview of conceptual, theoretical and methodological trajectories in leisure and health. It includes critical scholarship about the meanings, politics...

Being in Pieces: Integrating Dance, Identity and Mental Health

Abstract: Informed by reflective narration of one of the authors this chapter explores ways in which his career in dance has been challenged through mental ill health and the physical and emotional disruptions of age. The aim is to ‘position’ the performer as self, writer and researcher researched. Through the process the reader glimpses a reflexive dialogue concerned with transitions in ‘identity’ traced through embodied memory, dancing nostalgia, loss, reluctance, mental illness, and difference. In framing what they call a 'lifespan model', Myers, Sweeney and Witmer define wellness as '…a way of life oriented toward optimal health and well-being in which the body, mind, and spirit are integrated … to live more fully…”(1998: ). In order to explore this realm we engage with a construction of selves, where performance is not separated from the experience gained in making meaning of life, to paraphrase Kaprow and Kelly (1992). Our interest is to embrace realms of personal knowledge through appraising being-embodied and being-imaged and where being multiple and being singular tasks us with the curious phenomena of self-recognition. To address the affective resonance of self-recognition Being in Pieces utilises the material archive from the performances and installations of Falling Apart at the Seams (2008), Council House Movie Star (2012) and Dying Swans (2013) by delving into a distant dancing self and the somatic archaeology of performing past(s) retrieved, re-negotiated and re-languaged.

Anti-Fat Biases of Occupational and Physical Therapy Assistants

Abstract: Fat people are highly stigmatized, and anti-fat bias is pervasive resulting in stigma, prejudice, and discrimination, including in health care. The aim of this study was to explore occupational and physical therapy assistants' anti-fat biases. We analyzed secondary weight implicit association tests from 5,671 occupational/physical therapy assistants. The overwhelming majority (82%) of occupational/physical therapy assistants were implicitly prejudiced against fat people. Interventions for occupational/physical therapy assistants' anti-fat biases are critical, especially with increasing prevalence and responsibilities of occupational/physical therapy assistants in the provision of rehabilitation services.