Watch this informative virtual talk in which Dr Julia Mueller discussed weight management during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The heightened stress and emotional turmoil associated with the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with forced inactivity and disruption of routines are likely to lead to weight gain and adverse mental burden. There is a need for remotely delivered weight management interventions to support adults with overweight and obesity during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this talk, Dr Julia Mueller will present her findings from a randomised controlled trial which evaluated the effectiveness of an online, guided self-help intervention based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in preventing weight gain during the pandemic. Dr Julia Mueller discussed the main findings and learnings on how best to support weight management remotely using online and telephone-based support.
About the speaker
Dr Julia Mueller is a Research Associate at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, working within the programme on Prevention of Diabetes and Related Metabolic Disorders in High Risk Groups. She currently leads the quantitative analysis on an NIHR Programme Grant for Applied Research on developing and evaluating scalable behavioural weight management programmes. Julia completed a Bsc in Psychology at the Georg-August-University in Goettingen, Germany in 2011, and an MSc in Health Psychology at the University of St Andrews in 2013. She completed her PhD in 2018 at the University of Manchester. Julia's research to date revolves around the management and prevention of noncommunicable diseases such as cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and obesity, with a particular interest in the potential of technology to support healthy lifestyles and disease self-management. Throughout her PhD and postdoctoral work, Julia has taken on interdisciplinary projects, working closely with researchers in both health sciences and computer science. She has co-authored a textbook on developing medical apps and mHealth interventions. Since joining the MRC Epidemiology Unit in May 2020, Julia's research focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of using non-specialists and technology to deliver behavioural weight management programmes.