Association for the Study of Obesity

This article is part of the Foodspin project of Spinwatch.

The Association for the Study of Obesity (ASO) was founded in 1967 and according to its website is the "UK's foremost charitable organisation dedicated to the understanding and treatment of obesity."

The ASO has three key objectives:

• To promote professional awareness of obesity and its impact on health.
• To educate and disseminate recent research on the causes, consequences, treatment, and prevention of obesity
• To prioritise obesity and provide opinion leadership in the UK.

The Association is affiliated to the European and International Associations for the Study of Obesity and organised the lst International Congress on Obesity, held in London in 1974 and the 2nd European Congress on Obesity, held in Oxford in 1989. The Association was also the founding body of the highly respected International Journal of Obesity.

The ASO exists to provide training to health professionals and others involved in the prevention and treatment of obesity and to offer an ongoing forum for the sharing of scientific expertise and clinical practice through the provision of high quality scientific and educational meetings. The ASO also runs ORIC, the Obesity Resource and Information Centre, as a point of contact for others interested in obesity, especially the media, who are seeking independent and authoritative information on obesity.

Finances

The ASO is both a charity (number 1100648), and a company limited by guarantee (number 04796449). The annual accounts for 2006 show total income of £115,373 of which £70,040 was from sponsorship. The main sponsors named in the accounts are: Roche, Abbot Sanofi-Aventis, Unilever.

Sponsors

Their sponsors in 2007 were

• Cambridge Health Plan
• GlaxoSmithKline
• Kellogg
• LighterLife
• Masterfoods
• Roche
• Rosemary Conley
• Sanofi-Aventis
• seca
• Slimfast
• Slimming World
• Tanita UK Ltd
• Weight Watchers

People

ASO is governed by an elected unpaid Board of Trustees, who normally meet three times a year. It employs two staff, the Director of Operations and Fundraising and the Events Coordinator and Administrator. Trustees report annually to the ASO membership.

Trustees

• Chair - Susan Jebb PhD, SRD Head of Nutrition and Health at the Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Research centre (HNR) in Cambridge. Head of the Nutrition Communication group at HNR and works extensively with government, industry, health professionals, the media and consumer groups to translate nutrition science into policy and practice. Member of the Nutrition Society, the British Dietetic Association and The American Institute of Nutrition. Was chair of expert group which in March 2007 produced Department of Health commissioned report on obesity issues.
• Deputy Chair - Dr Jason Halford He has been involved in the behavioural assessment of potential anti-obesity drugs in pre-clinical models and humans ever since, including recent work on Rimonabant. More recently, he has focused on the effects of branding and food promotion on children’s food preferences and diet. Currently a reader in appetite and obesity at the University of Liverpool and Director of the Human Ingestive Behaviour laboratory.
• Professor John Wilding DM FRCP. Former Chair of the UK Association for the Study of Obesity and a UK representative on the International Association for the Study of Obesity committee.
• Professor Carolyn Summerbell PhD, SRD Professor of Human Nutrition and Assistant Dean (Research) within the School of Health and Social Care at Teesside University, Middlesbrough. Principal Investigator for the NICE Public Health Collaborating Centre on Obesity based at Teesside. Member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Obesity and is a member of the WHO Expert Panel on Childhood Obesity. Was member of expert group which in March 2007 produced Department of Health commissioned report on obesity issues.
• Dr John MacKean Part time GP. Also works on an independent basis conducting health screening for BUPA and medico-legal work.
• Professor Marion Hetherington Professor of Biopsychology at Glasgow Caledonian University. She leads a small, research active group in the Department of Psychology exploring appetite regulation across the lifespan. Her interest in obesity developed from a BBSRC-funded project investigating genetic and behavioural markers of the pre-obese phenotype in children. Member of the Nutrition Society, the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB). Member of the editorial boards of the British Journal of Nutrition and the British Journal of Health Psychology.

• Dr Amelia Lake RD PHNutr PhD Dietitian and public health nutritionist with the Human Nutrition Research Centre at Newcastle University. Member of the British Dietetic Association’s Research Committee and their Quality and Performance indicators committee. Member of the Nutrition Society.
• Dr Krystna Matyka Senior Lecturer in Paediatrics at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire and at Warwick University. Runs a weight management service for obese children. Member of the Professional Advisory Council of Diabetes UK and has done work for NICE. Member of a group examining obesity research in childhood led by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
• Dr Vidya Mohamed-Ali PhD Senior Lecturer/Group Leader of the Adipokines and Metabolism Research Group at the Department of Medicine, University College London. Her group is funded by grants from the Wellcome Trust, British Heart Foundation and an EC Sixth Framework Programme Integrated Project grant on health benefits of exercise. Member of the American Endocrine Society and American Diabetes Association.
• Denise Robertson PhD BSc (Hons) RNutr. Lecturer in Nutritional Physiology at the University of Surrey, prior to which she spent 7 years as a researcher at the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Oxford.
• Dr Matt Sabin MRCPCH MB BS (Hons) BSc (Hons) Medical degree at the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals in London, general professional training in Paediatrics and obtained membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in July 2000.
• Simon Williams PhD MA BA (Hons) Principal Lecturer in Health and Exercise Science at the University of Glamorgan in South Wales. Member of Diabetes UK and the British Association for Sport and Exercise Science.

Contact Details

• Address : ASO, 20 Brook Meadow Close, Woodford Green,Essex IG8 9NR
• Tel: 020 8503 2042
• Website:www.aso.org.uk

Affiliations

Obesity All Party Parliamentary Group, provides support to the Group