Few health issues have greater impact on human health, or engender more debate around treatment and prevention, than obesity.
Since 1975, rates of obesity have tripled in what the World Health Organization has called “an escalating global epidemic”.[1] And with complex causes and contributing factors such as genetics, metabolism, lifestyle, and societal inequities, there is no magic bullet or ‘one sizes fits all’ approach when it comes to tackling obesity.
That’s why an innovative business in Leeds is working hand in hand with one of the UK’s leading academic institutions for obesity to bring together multidisciplinary expertise to improve the lives of people in the UK’s third largest city – and beyond.
Morelife, conceived as a research unit at Leeds Beckett University,[2] combines academic knowledge with clinical experience and the experience of those living with obesity.
In response to a problem with no easy answers, this innovative and collaborative approach allows Morelife to harness data to co-produce person-centred support, catalysing real change at scale for individuals, health systems and society.
From academic rigour to real-world application
When research from Leeds Beckett University highlighted that there wasn’t enough high-quality support available for people looking to live a healthy lifestyle, Morelife was born.
Starting in 1999 with weight loss camps for children, today Morelife is the leading provider of weight management services in the UK. It offers a range of healthy lifestyle support, working with 30,000 children and adults across England each year.
Describing the scale of the challenge, CEO of Morelife and visiting Professor of Exercise and Obesity at Leeds Beckett University, Paul Gately said: “Across England, most adults live with a weight problem, either overweight or obesity. And this is also the case for one in three children by the time they leave primary school.”
One of the most pervasive and expensive public health issues of our time, obesity affects individual health and strains systems and economies worldwide. People affected face a significantly increased risk of health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders and some cancers. And in the UK alone, obesity has an estimated cost to wider society of £98 billion per year.
Paul said: “Obesity is a complex issue, and one which public health teams have struggled to address on a local level. Many approaches have focused on finding single solutions to single problems, with organisations working independently and in isolation.
“While the singular solutions that we often hear about in the media may have a role to play, they simply lack the scale to tackle the whole problem effectively.”
Holistic support for healthier lives
With 25 years of expertise, Morelife’s services have evolved to encompass weight management, smoking cessation, health checks, health coaching, physical activity, and psychological support.
Paul said: “Our aim and our expertise is strongly focused on supporting individuals and organisations to change and become healthier.”
This includes free NHS health checks offered by Morelife for people aged 40 to 75 to help spot early signs of conditions like high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
And, as the largest tier 3 weight management provider in England,[3] Morelife was the first to prescribe the new anti-obesity drugs Saxenda and Wygovy alongside its comprehensive, research-backed programmes focused on diet changes and exercise.
Paul said: “I am passionate that, as a society and through our health support services, we need to improve understanding of obesity so that we move away from negative stereotypes and stigma, and instead empower people and engage them.
“Fundamental to our mission is working with our experts and our clients to create solutions together, which makes it more meaningful for the people using our services.”
Reducing health inequalities
Obesity in women, especially during pregnancy, contributes to the health risks of their children, and can amplify health inequities across generations.[4]
Working with expectant mothers, health commissioners and midwives, Morelife was the first company to offer coproduced obstetric weight management focusing on healthy behaviours.
Childhood obesity is a strong predictor of adult obesity and is associated ill health. For children in the most deprived areas, living with obesity from a young age is likely to worsen health outcomes and health inequalities later in life.[5]
Morelife tailors its comprehensive school health and wellness programmes to the physical and mental health needs of students.
“We focus on addressing the complex factors contributing to obesity and offering children and their families the tools and knowledge to achieve and maintain a healthier lifestyle.”
Morelife also offers a Learning Disability Programme, designed to help people living with learning disabilities improve their health and wellbeing.
With a sharp rise in obesity in the most deprived communities in England in recent years, Paul said: “We are proud that our evidence shows we are reducing health inequalities – not widening them.”
Making the whole greater than the sum of its parts
Its origins as a university spin-out mean Morelife is ideally placed to develop innovative solutions which combine academic rigour with real world insights: “Our continued close working with Leeds Beckett University means that Morelife clients receive advice and support which is founded in decades of academic research and insight. At the same time, the university has instant access to real-world data on obesity and healthy lifestyles which allows it to undertake further analysis.
Professor Gately was also the founding director of the Leeds Beckett University Obesity Institute, which carries out groundbreaking disruptive research to tackle the complexity of obesity at a systems level.
It brings together academics from a range of disciplines across the University with policy makers, health practitioners, and people living with or at risk of obesity and their families, to develop innovative approaches.
As well as offering holistic support to individuals, Paul explains how Morelife has been at the forefront of driving whole system change.
“Our expertise has been utilised by Leeds Beckett University as part of its Public Health England (PHE) three-year pioneering programme ‘Whole System Approach to Obesity’. It aims to give local authorities the skills, knowledge, tools and confidence to function in a whole systems way.”
Professor Gately led the research for a collaborative project involving PHE, the Local Government Association, the Association of Directors of Public Health, and Leeds Beckett University.
The resulting toolkit marked a change from traditional silo working to approaches built upon co-produced and collaborative goals. This is now being applied across the country and internationally as a model of best practice for health system change.
Leeds: leading the way and looking globally
Paul describes how the internationally-renowned health innovation ecosystem in Leeds has been a powerful springboard for success.
“The opportunities for health innovation in Leeds are immense. We are part of its strong culture of cross-sector partnership working, focused on helping address the city’s most pressing health challenges. And the city’s fantastic innovation infrastructure helps us and other innovators accelerate new ideas and approaches and translate them into life-changing realities for people across Leeds and beyond.
Representing Morelife, Paul recently joined a US delegation led by the Mayor of West Yorkshire to showcase the world-renowned strengths of the city and region, and to forge important connections with global health innovation leaders.
“It was also an incredibly valuable opportunity to learn in more depth about the health ecosystems of Nashville and Boston.
“The US presents a major opportunity for health industry innovators. The size of the market is significant with the highest health expenditure of any country. Whilst complex, it is highly regulated bringing clarity and opportunity for innovators to realise.”
“Both Nashville and Boston provide different opportunities that we as a business are preparing to explore further. This includes increasing our service reach in Nashville, and in Boston evolving our programmes through research via the city’s strong academic connections.
American adults have worse cardiovascular health and higher levels of obesity than their British counterparts, along with greater disparities in health by socioeconomic factors.[6]
Paul explains that Morelife is ready for this global challenge:
“Our vision is to transform the lives of people with obesity, supporting them to have healthier, happier futures. Through our health improvement programmes, which are built around individuals and based on science, we’re proud Morelife is paving the way to make this a reality.”
Read part one of the series, where we hear from Paxman Scalp Cooling, a local company whose innovations are helping millions of people across the UK and beyond, to manage the side effects one of the most prevalent and hardest health challenges of our time: cancer.
References:
[1] https://www.who.int/activities/controlling-the-global-obesity-epidemic
[2] Where it began life as Carnegie Weight Management
[3] Tier 3 weight management services offer weight management support for people who live with obesity
[4] https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg189/documents/health-inequalities-briefing-2
[5] https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg189/documents/health-inequalities-briefing-2
[6] https://www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/news/us-adults-in-worse-health-than-british-counterparts-at-midlife
Image credits:
Header image: iStock.com/Zoran Zeremski
Sideline image 1: iStock.com/Sabrina Bracher
Sideline image 2: iStock.com/AleksandarGeorgiev
