Alison Fildes

Profile

I am an Associate Professor interested in the development and modification of obesogenic health behaviours. I completed my first degree in Psychology at the University of Edinburgh before joining University College London’s Health Behaviour Research Centre working on the newly established population-based twin birth cohort study, Gemini.

I undertook my PhD with Professor Jane Wardle at University College London, examining the aetiology of children’s food preferences. I have held post-doctoral positions both internationally and nationally in the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation at Queensland University of Technology (Australia), the Department of Primary Care and Public Health Sciences at Kings College London and the Department of Behavioural Science and Health at University College London.

I am an honorary Senior Research Associate at University College London and deputy director of the Gemini study. My research focusses on behavioural obesity and I have expertise in appetite, food preferences, feeding practices, the food environment, and consumer behaviour. I am particularly interested in early childhood health behaviours, with a focus on increasing children’s fruit an vegetable consumption. I have contributed to several randomised controlled trials targeting diet and obesity prevention. I am part of a large multidisciplinary team based at the university of Leeds which utilises consumer data to test interventions that promote healthy and sustainable diets.

Responsibilities

• Deputy Director of Postgraduate Studies (Admissions)

Research interests

My research interests centre on understanding how dietary and eating behaviours develop in childhood and how these behaviours can be changed to improve lifelong health.  My research involves mixed methods approaches, including behavioural genetics, epidemiology, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, psychometrics, trials, qualitative approaches, and data analytics.  

The Gemini Study

I am particularly interested in how genes and the environment interact to promote excessive weight gain and am the deputy director of the Gemini Study. Gemini is a large UK population-based twin birth cohort established in 2007 to advance understanding of the genetic and environmental contributions to growth, energy balance behaviours and wellbeing from infancy to early adulthood.

Diet and Health Inequalities (DIO Food)

UKRI TUKFS Funded

The goal of the DIO Food project is to identify how we can provide timely evidence-based research and commentary from those facing diet and health inequalities. The main focus of the project is working with vulnerable groups (early years and people with low income) to tackle the cost of living crisis to give timely policy directives.

I work with a team led by Professor Michelle Morris to investigate the impact of the high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) legislation on sales of these products, across different retailers and population groups. 

We will answer the following research questions:  

1. what happened to HFSS product sales after introduction of the policy?  
2. what happened to the retail product portfolios after introduction of the policy?  
3. Were impacts of the HFSS legislation equitable across different sociodemographic groups across the country?  
4. Has the HFSS legislation lead to healthier overall purchasing using Eatwell guide as metric? 

These questions will be answered using both store level sales data, and primary data collected via interviews and surveys with the retail sector and customers.  

Healthy and Sustainable diets programme evaluation

IGD Social Impact Funded

In collaboration with the IGD and their Nutrition Forum, representing retailers and manufacturers in the UK Food industry, we co-develop in store and online interventions and then acquire sales transaction data to independently evaluate the impact of these interventions on customer behaviour.

Professional memberships

• Association for the study of Obesity
• International Society of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity
• European Association for the Study of Obesity

Student education

I teach at all levels on programmes within the School of Psychology, from undergraduate to Masters. This teaching is oriented around my research interests in appetite, eating behaviour, and behavioural genetics. I also supervise projects at Level 3 and Masters levels. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). 

Research groups and institutes

• Appetite control and energy balance

Current postgraduate researchers

• Shihui Yu