Clinical Research Directory

Identifying the Best Tools for Recording Diet in Free-living UK Adults (SODIAT-2 Study)

The aim of the SODIAT-2 study is to evaluate the effectiveness of dietary intake assessment tools in a real-world setting. These tools include wearable cameras, spot urine samples, capillary blood samples, and a web-based food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). The main questions it aims to answer are: Is the accuracy of dietary assessment improved in free-living environments when a combination of subjective and objective assessments tools are used? Secondary research questions are: Can wearable cameras accurately monitor the daily dietary intake of free-living individuals? Does a combination of capillary blood samples and spot urine samples provide a robust assessment of the nutrient status and habitual dietary exposure in a free-living setting? Can data-driven integration of multiple emerging technologies create a dietary assessment tool that is low burden, accurate and scalable in free-living populations? Can a condensed FFQ estimate diet quality as effectively as a detailed FFQ? Participants will: Use the dietary assessment tools (wearable camera, spot urine, capillary blood, and eNutri FFQ web-app) as instructed over a 5-week period from their home and/or working space. Take part in two monitoring weeks (week 1 and week 5) where they will record their usual dietary intake over 3 days. Consume an identical 3-day study meal plan during the test (calibration) diet week 3, whilst repeating the monitoring week measurements. This study aims to recruit 133 adults living in Great Britain (GB) to better understand how these tools perform outside of a clinical environment.

The Impact of Whey Protein on Frailty in Older Adults Classified as Pre-frail

This pilot study aims to determine the impact of whey protein supplementation on brain antioxidant levels and to assess the effects of whey protein supplementation on physical function, body composition, and cognition in pre-frail older adults.

Identifying Wearable Biomarkers to Monitor Dietary Intake

Background: Measuring what people eat is a challenge in nutrition research. Traditional methods, like food diaries, rely on self-reporting of individuals, and suffer from poor accuracy and recall bias. Aims: This project aims to identify physiological biomarkers related to food and energy intake, which may be used to develop an objective tool to estimate individuals' food intake in future. Eating behaviours are accompanied by significant physiological changes such as skin temperature, blood oxygen saturation, pulse rate etc. The investigators intend to investigate whether monitoring these physiological changes can help us estimate eating behaviour, such as meal size, eating speed, and duration of meals. Study design: Ten healthy adults will be invited for two study visits at NIHR Imperial Clinical Research Facility. Each visit will last for approximately 2 hr. They will consume a high- and low-calorie meal designed by nutritional researchers in a randomised order. During eating events, the investigators will track their physiological changes via a bedside monitor and wearable sensors. Blood samples will be taken from participants to measure their glycaemic response. Associations between energy load, glycaemic response, and physiological changes will be investigated. Our findings may promote an accelerated development of a wearable tool for dietary assessment in future.