Background
Similar to many other areas, many children in Bradford consume too much sugar, fat and not enough fibre, vitamin D, or fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, diet quality and obesity rates are much worse in families living in the most deprived areas and food insecurity levels in Bradford are amongst the highest in the whole of England (20% of families experience food insecurity in Bradford). This tells us that the environments that children grow up in play a substantial role in either supporting a healthy diet or preventing access to healthy, tasty and affordable food.
Bradford has a rich culture of food that should be embraced but is unfortunately flooded with many fast food outlets – over twice as many as the average as other areas in England. Schools provide an excellent opportunity to provide children with nutritious food, but many tell us that they are simply too busy with other demands, or that their ‘hands feel tied’ due to feeling stuck in catering contracts that the feel powerless to change. Research is needed to explore innovative and practical ways to support local individuals, communities, schools and services in navigating the local food environment and promoting healthy dietary behaviours.
What we do
The Born in Bradford Diet, Nutrition, and Obesity (DNO) team meets bimonthly to discuss projects related to diet, nutrition, and obesity within the Born in Bradford family of cohorts as well as associated projects in our schools and community. The team reviews progress of ongoing projects and papers, considers new invitations to collaborate, as well as new data requests relevant to our areas of interest. To date, the group has led or significantly contributed to over 80 studies and our wide-ranging research interests include:
- Food insecurity
- Risk factors for obesity
- School food
- Weight perception
- Methodology
- Infant feeding
- Growth trajectories
- Gestational diabetes
- Intervention development, implementation, and evaluation
Our findings have been shared locally, regionally, and nationally and contributed to the evidence base to help decision makers and schools support children and families. You can read more about our research and impact in this briefing report.
We utilise a range of data, including questionnaire, biomarker, clinical, environmental, and routinely-linked data in our research. Our richly-characterised BiB1000 subsample of BiB children which collected extensive data on hypothesised behaviours and determinants of obesity during its 5-wave follow-up can be found here. More information about the data available can be found in our Data Dictionary.
Current Projects
The BiB DNO will build on the previous work to gain further insights and better support the diet, nutrition, and obesity of the Bradford population.
- Together with ActEarly colleagues, the team are investigating the importance of community food assets in supporting health and wellbeing in families – with a particular focus on some of the wider activities that such organisation play to help people need to use emergency food less for example, by providing employment or benefits advice)
- We are working with primary schools in Bradford to help them consider whether our resources support them to enhance their school food environments (CONNECTS-Food)
- Our school food research will also consider the importance and value of free school meals – we will use routine data to explore the benefits of FSM on health, well-being and attainment
- We are exploring how culture and cultural differences promote resiliency to food insecurity and consider the impact of the pandemic
- We are continuing to explore the value of breastfeeding services to support women and their infants through the Better Start Bradford programme
- We are working closely with colleagues in Bradford council to support the development and evaluation of a new Bradford Food Strategy (and other relevant food initiatives)
We are a resource for researchers keen to gain an understanding of the rich data in the BiB cohorts. For more information on our other projects, or if you have a project idea you would like to discuss, please contact Tiffany Yang.
