
Dr Naomi Klepacz
Academic and research departments
Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Strategic Research Theme: Lifelong Health.Biography
Biography
Naomi Klepacz graduated from the University of Southampton with a BSc (Hons.) in Psychology, and went on to obtain a PGCE in Post-Compulsory Education and Training from the University of Portsmouth. Naomi has worked as a lecturer and teacher of Psychology and Health Studies in several FE and Sixth-Form colleges. In 2010, Naomi took a break from her teaching career to study full-time for her MSc in Health Psychology at the University of Surrey. On completing her MSc, Naomi remained at the University of Surrey where she completed a PhD investigating the role of packaging imagery in people's understanding of health function, under the supervision of Dr Robert Nash and Prof Jane Ogden, and in partnership with the Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre (FCBH). Naomi Joined FCBH has a Research Fellow in August 2015.
Areas of specialism
University roles and responsibilities
- Senior Impact Officer
Affiliations and memberships
Member of the Division of Health Psychologists
In the media
Research
Research interests
Naomi's research interests focus on health communication and promotion, and fall under the umbrella of applied health psychology. She is particularly interested in the role of visual imagery in people's understanding of health and memory for health related information. Naomi has lead research into how people use visual imagery to draw inferences as to the potential health function of food and beverage products, and how such inferences affect health related decision-making and behaviour. She has experience of conducting research both as part of both UK and EU funded projects, employing both qualitative and quantitative methods.
More broadly, Naomi is interested in all aspects of health psychology and health care. She has an interested in health damaging behaviour and psychological interventions used for primary prevention, as well as the processes influencing the effective delivery of health care and its impact on individuals, family members and caregivers. She has an interest in the design and implementation of interventions that may be used to improve quality of life and to promote self-management of illness.
Research collaborations
University of Surrey
Professor Caroline Scarles - Professor of Technology in Society, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management
Dr Jean-Yves Guillemaut - Senior Lecturer in 3D Computer Vision, CVSSP
Dr Kayleigh Wyles - Lecturer in Environmental Psychology, School of Psychology (Environmental Psychology Research Group)
Professor Monique Raats - Director of the Food Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre, Associate Dean Research and Innovation, Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences
Dr Bernadette Egan - Deputy Director NIHR Research Design Services South-East
Dr Lada Timotijevic - Principal Research Fellow in the Food Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre
Dr Charo Hodgkins - Research Fellow in the Food Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre
Dr Kathryn Hart - Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Biosciences and Medicine
Professor Caroline Nicholson - Pressor of Palliative Care and Ageing, School of Health Sciences
Dr Anne Arber - Visiting Reader in Cancer and Palliative Care, School of Health Sciences
Aston University
Dr Rob Nash - Senior Lecturer in Psychology (human memory, cognition and social influence)
Chris Delivett - PhD student, School of Pscyhology
University of Strathclyde
Professor Roma Maguire - Professor of Digital Health and Care, Director of the Health and Care Futures Initiative
Glasgow School of Arts
Professor Alastair Macdonald - Senior Researcher, School of Design
University of Exeter
Professor Andi Smart - Professor of Operations and Process Management, Exeter Business School
Dr Laura Philips - Lecturer in Management, Exeter Business School
My teaching
I teach Health Psychology, Applied Psychology, Health Services Research and Research Design and Methodology to undergraduate and postgraduate students in the School of Psychology and School of Health Sciences.
PSYM006: Psychological Aspects of Health Care
PSY3104: Applied Psychology and Public Policy
PSY3065: Psychology Dissertation (UG)
PSYM034: Psychology Dissertation (Masters)
NUR3171: Research for Professional Practice
NURM141: Research Design and Methodology
NUR2179: Palliative Care Interventions
I also supervise undergraduate and Master's dissertation students in the School of Psychology, School of Health Sciences and Department of Nutrition.
My publications
Highlights
Delivett, Chistopher., Klepacz, Naomi., Farrow, Claire., Thomas, Jason., Raats, Monique., Nash, Robert. (2020). Front-of-pack images can boost the perceived health benefits of dietary products. Appetite. 155. pp.104831 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.104831
Publications
Background:
Patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) have a life limiting illness and a short prognosis and experience many debilitating symptoms from early on in the illness. Innovations such as remote symptom monitoring are needed to enable patients to maintain wellbeing and to manage symptoms in a proactive and timely manner. The Advanced Symptom Management System (ASyMS) has been successfully used to monitor symptoms associated with cancer.
Objective:
To determine the feasibility and acceptability of using an Advanced Symptom Management System (ASyMS) adapted for use by patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma and called: ASyMSmeso enabling the remote monitoring of symptoms using a smartphone.
Methods:
This was a mixed methods study using Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) at key time points over a period of 2-3 months with 18 patients. The Sheffield Profile for Assessment and Referral for Care (SPARC); Technology Acceptance Model Measure for e-health (TAM); and the Lung Cancer Symptom Scale-Mesothelioma (LCSS-meso) were the PROMs used in the study. Patients were also asked to complete a daily symptom questionnaire on a smartphone throughout the study. At the end of the study semi-structured interviews with 11 health professionals, 8 patients and 3 carers about their experience of using ASyMSmeso were conducted.
Results:
Eighteen patients with MPM agreed to participate in the study (33.3% response rate). The completion rates of study PROMs were high (97.2%-100%) and for completion of the daily symptom questionnaire were also high at 88.5% There were no significant changes in quality of life, as measured by LCSS-meso. There were statistically significant improvements from the SPARC domain: psychological need (P=0.049), and in the “Usefulness” domain of the Technology Acceptance Model (P=0.022). End of study interviews identified that both patients and clinicians found the system quick and easy to use. For patients in particular the system provided reassurance about symptom experience and the feeling of being listened to. The clinicians largely viewed the system as feasible and acceptable and areas that were mentioned included the early management of symptoms, connectivity between patients and clinicians leading to enhanced communication.
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates that remote monitoring and management of symptoms of people with MPM using a mobile phone is feasible and acceptable. The evidence supports future trials using remote symptom monitoring to support patients with MPM at home.
Background
The need for a better understanding of food consumption behaviour within its behavioural context has sparked the interest of nutrition researchers for user-documented food consumption data collected outside the research context using publicly available nutrition apps. The study aims to characterize the scientific, technical, legal and ethical features of this data in order to identify the opportunities and challenges associated with using this data for nutrition research.
Method
A search for apps collecting food consumption data was conducted in October 2016 against UK Google Play and iTunes storefronts. 176 apps were selected based on user ratings and English language support. Publicly available information from the app stores and app-related websites was investigated and relevant data extracted and summarized. Our focus was on characteristics related to scientific relevance, data management and legal and ethical governance of user-documented food consumption data.
Results
Food diaries are the most common form of data collection, allowing for multiple inputs including generic food items, packaged products, or images. Standards and procedures for compiling food databases used for estimating energy and nutrient intakes remain largely undisclosed. Food consumption data is interlinked with various types of contextual data related to behavioural motivation, physical activity, health, and fitness. While exchange of data between apps is common practise, the majority of apps lack technical documentation regarding data export. There is a similar lack of documentation regarding the implemented terms of use and privacy policies. While users are usually the owners of their data, vendors are granted irrevocable and royalty free licenses to commercially exploit the data.
Conclusion
Due to its magnitude, diversity, and interconnectedness, user-documented food consumption data offers promising opportunities for a better understanding of habitual food consumption behaviour and its determinants. Non-standardized or non-documented food data compilation procedures, data exchange protocols and formats, terms of use and privacy statements, however, limit possibilities to integrate, process and share user-documented food consumption data. An ongoing research effort is required, to keep pace with the technical advancements of food consumption apps, their evolving data networks and the legal and ethical regulations related to protecting app users and their personal data.
Additional publications
Preprints
Maguire, Roma., Connaghan, John., Arber, Anne., Klepacz, Naomi., Blyth, Kevin., McPhelim, John., Murray, Paul., Rupani, Hitasha., Chuahan, Anoop., Williams, Peter., McNaughton, Laura., Woods, Kirstie., Moylan, Anne. (2020). The Advanced Symptom Management System for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (ASyMSmeso): a feasibility study (Preprint). Journal of Medical Internet Research https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/19180
Recent Conference Proceedings
2020
Macdonald, Alastair., Chambers, Mark., La Ragione, Roberto., Wyles, Kayleigh., Poyade, Matthieu., Wales, Andrew., Klepacz, Naomi., Kupfer, Tom., Watson, Fraje and Noble, Shona (2020). Using novel visualisation methods to combat infection risk during clinical practices. In: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Design4Health, Amsterdam, NL. Lab4Living, pp. 360-363. ISBN 978-1-8381117-0-0
Scarles, Caroline., van Even, Suzanne., Klepacz, Naomi., Guillemaut, Jean-Yves., Humbratcht, Michael (2020). Bringing the outdoors indoors: Experiences of recreation in nature and coastal environments in residential care homes. E-review of Tourism, 17(5). pp.706-721.
2019
Maguire, Roma., Arber, Anne., Klepacz, N., Connaghan, John., McPhelim, J., Blythe, K., Murray, P., Rupani, H., McNaughton, L., Moylan, A., Clark, P. (2019). Determining the feasibility and acceptability of a mobile health application to remotely monitor the symptoms of people with mesothelioma at home. Lung Cancer. 127. S87-S88. 10.1016/S0169-5002(19)30254-5.