A UNIVERSITY research team is hoping to recruit volunteers to help in a study of weight-loss programmes.

With an estimated 14 million people across the UK about to embark on a new year diet, the scientists are hoping they will have no shortage of applicants.

The Durham University team is hoping to recruit 1,000 people to complete an anonymous 20-minute postal survey telling researchers about their experience of commercial diet and weight-loss programmes.

They hope to build up a scientific picture of which are popular and why, information which will be fed back to public health policy and may eventually lead to GPs having the option of referring patients to a diet plan, rather than a medical procedure.

Researchers, based at the university’s school of medicine and health, in Stockton, want to recruit people from County Durham, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and the Tees Valley.

The only stipulation is that they must be over the age of 16 and must have used a commercial weight-loss product in the past year, such as Slimming World, WeightWatchers, LighterLife, Rosemary Conley, Diet Chef and Slim- Fast, as well as weight loss books, DVDs and websites.

Lead researcher Alisha Crayton said: “There are so many commercial weightloss programmes available, but we don’t yet fully know how effective they are, what people think of them, and whether they provide good value for money.

“In order for us to get a good idea of why people choose particular programmes and products, we are looking for at least 1,000 volunteers to complete the survey.

“That way, we can identify some patterns and get a good picture of the market place.

“We will then feed the findings into public health policy through primary care trusts.”

Some of the volunteers will be invited to take part in a second stage of research, which will involve focus groups ranking programmes.

Anyone interested is asked to send their name and address, including their postcode, either by emailing cwl.orbresearchgroup@durham.ac.uk, calling 0191-334- 0820 or by writing to R-Weight, Obesity Related Behaviours Research Group, School of Medicine and Health, Durham University, Queens Campus, Wolfson Research Institute, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 6BH.