Dr. Oliver Mytton is a Clinical Associate Professor and Honorary Public Health Consultant at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute for Child Health. With a focus on research, policy, and public health practice, Dr. Mytton’s insights are shaping the future of obesity prevention. He has unique insights from his work across bodies such as local and national government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and different layers of the NHS. In this conversation, he discusses his path into obesity research, his upcoming projects which could influence policy and health outcomes in the UK, and the challenges and rewarding aspects of his career.
From Medicine to Public Health
Dr. Mytton’s career trajectory began as a medical student, where he began questioning “how and why people got sick in the first place”. His growing interest in public health led him to wonder how- rather than treating one individual with a condition- would you put in the right systems of care for multiple people with these conditions? During his studies, Dr. Mytton focussed a dissertation project on food taxes, before then undertaking a medical elective on the Thai Burmese border looking at malaria control, sparking his interest in using research to drive policy and deliver services practically. Whilst training as a junior doctor, Dr. Mytton took an opportunity to work for the Chief Medical Office, which led his way into public health.
He later worked in various public health roles, including at the Department for Health and Social Care, where he saw the intersection of policy and public health firsthand. His time working with NGOs and healthcare systems further influenced his decision to focus on obesity.
The Move Towards Obesity Research
Dr. Mytton’s shift to studying obesity came during his medical training, inspired by the work of Richard Doll on smoking. “I was thinking about what’s the next big challenge for the next generation coming through because smoking felt as if it was solved as a public health issue. Looking back on it, that wasn’t quite true. But for me, the next big challenge seemed to be obesity”. Whilst working for the Health Select Committee, Dr. Mytton was involved in editing Time to Solve Childhood Obesity, a report which examined the roles of government, food industries, and policies in preventing childhood obesity.
When asked what priorities should come from the report, Dr. Mytton believes that policymakers must think “more about structural changes and less about individual interventions”. He adds the need for a push for further regulation of the food industry, “…so we’re seeing healthier food on our shelves and food marketed in a more responsible way”.
The Role of Clinical Experience in Public Health
Having a clinical background has helped Dr. Mytton approach public health issues with a grounded perspective. “I think it’s given me an ability to sort of try and boil things down to the basics. And it’s just like trying to take the complexity out of a language because you have to do that when you talk to patients. But you also have to do that a lot of the time when you talk to policymakers” he explains. This experience also helps him understand the challenges of translating clinical interventions into population-wide strategies.
Upcoming Research: Shaping Policy and Public Health
Dr. Mytton will soon be leading two major research projects that could influence obesity prevention strategies in the UK. One project evaluates the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP), a project which is broken into two components. The research team will seek to “understand the impact of measurement on children principally, whether it has any negative impacts on their mental well-being but also understanding for any sort of positive benefits or changes, and understanding that from a child perspective and a parent perspective”. The second component looks at how local authorities deliver the NCMP, which Dr. Mytton explains the aim as “understanding which approaches may be more cost effective or better, which may depend on different local circumstances. Rural areas may have to do things differently as the class sizes can be smaller and the journey times between schools longer. Also understanding how local authorities use that data locally. What’s the local value for that data?”
The second project investigates the impact of price promotions in supermarkets, particularly regarding unhealthy foods. Dr. Mytton and his team aim to assess whether voluntary restrictions by supermarkets can lead to healthier consumer choices. He plans to investigate to what extent they were fully implemented before understanding the impact on how much consumers spend. The project will involve an economic analysis to understand impact on the sort of share price, turnover, employability in the supermarkets and key manufacturers that might be implemented by what the supermarkets have done as well as working with consumers to understand their perspectives.
Challenges at the Local Authority Level
Dr. Mytton emphasizes that local authorities face significant challenges when it comes to weight management and obesity prevention. For local authorities, limited resources and competing demands complicate the decision-making process. Dr. Mytton encourages local authorities to focus on structural and policy-level changes, though he acknowledges that the political buy-in is often a significant barrier. “You’ve got to have the political buy in and some of the leavers you can pull possibly don’t have that much impact at a local level” he adds.
The Biggest Gaps in Obesity Research
When asked about gaps in obesity research, Dr. Mytton identifies the need for more effective regulation of the food industry. “We have a series of structural responses that have been outlined for how we might regulate in food industry… do they go far enough? Probably not.” He identifies that the challenge lies in balancing the government’s role in regulating food industries with public and industry acceptability, pointing out how it’s difficult to get industry buy-in because regulation often threatens profit growth. “It plays into a bigger narrative we’re seeing at the moment around the regulation of industry, whether it’s around carbon emissions, social media, tech, or food”.
Overcoming Challenges: The Struggle for Funding
For Dr. Mytton, one of the biggest career challenges has been securing funding for his research. “Grants are quite short term” he explains. “Long-term, secure funding doesn’t really exist”, he adds, which is a challenge faced across the world of research.
Personal Reflections on His Career
Dr. Mytton reflects on the most rewarding aspects of his career in obesity research. “At first, I thought it would be seeing policies that I have worked on being implemented but that takes a long time and there are so many other factors involved,” he says. As he has progressed, he realises it’s more “giving evidence, data and facts a voice and ensuring they are heard and play into the decision-making process.”
He also finds satisfaction in the day-to-day “working in teams and helping junior researchers develop”. Reflecting on the nature of research, Dr. Mytton adds “it’s helpful to get your satisfaction from different sorts of things because some of these things are very slow long-term burns and some of the things are kind of more immediate day-to-day”.
Conclusion
Dr. Mytton’s work continues to shape the direction of obesity prevention in the UK, combining clinical expertise, public health knowledge, and innovative research. As his projects progress, they will likely influence both local and national policies, aiding us in preventative measures. His passion for giving evidence a voice remains a driving force in his career, and his research will continue to play a pivotal role in public health in the years to come.
Read more about Dr. Mytton’s work by following this link.
Written by Kaydee Shepherd, YORA Coordinator and PhD student at Leeds Beckett University.
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