Karen Protopapa
My research project
The psychosocial factors of effective weight loss interventions
I plan to use a mixed methods approach to explore the psychosocial factors of effective weight loss interventions in different populations. Furthermore, exploring the meaning of success and how different populations conceptualise weight loss success.
Supervisors
My qualifications
In the media
Research
Research interests
I became interested in health psychology in 2005, particularly eating and drinking behaviours. Progressively, my core research interest moved to obesity. My anonymous topic proposal for a national report on bariatric surgery was selected by NCEPOD. The report was published in 2012 and has been used by healthcare professionals when setting up their bariatric services.
I am also interested in high risk surgical patients. I was the research lead for the national peri-operative care study, the report of which was published in 2011. This then led me to my first article as first and corresponding author - the Development and Validation of the Surgical Outcome Risk Tool (SORT) in 2014. Following that, I designed the SORT app (given to an app developer to build on Android and iOS) and co-designed the web-based tool; both primarily to be used by healthcare professionals.
My teaching
I have completed two out of four modules so far of the Graduate Teaching and Learning Certificate.
In 2022/3, my teaching will include being a guest lecturer on the Health Psychology MSc programme.