Document is current

Article History

Received: 12 October 2025

Accepted: 21 December 2025

First Online: 14 January 2026

Declarations

:

: Emma Frew reports research funding from the NIHR, Economic and Social Research Council and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council; consultancy from The West Midlands Combined Authority; and honoraria for health economics advice to an international obesity taskforce supported by Novo Nordisk. Irina Pokhilenko reports receiving research funding from the NIHR and the European Union; travel grants from the European Union and from the University of Birmingham; and consulting fees from Lane Clark & Peacock LLP. Humera Sultan, Nafsika Afentou, Luiz F. Andrade, Lin Fu, Bassit Malik, Hamideh Mohtashami Borzadaran, Bisola Osifowora and Hanna Wride have no conflicts of interest that are directly relevant to the content of this article.

: Ethics approval for this study was gained from the University of Birmingham Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Committee (ERN_4979).

: Consent to be part of this study was obtained from all interview participants.

: As the study is a reflective account, all interview participants are authors of this article and have consented to publication.

: All data generated or analysed within this study are summarised in this article.

: Not applicable.

: All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection and analysis were performed by HS and EF. The first draft of the manuscript was written by EF, and all authors revised the draft manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.