Health Behaviour Research Centre

UCL DEPARTMENT OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND PUBLIC HEALTH
HEALTH BEHAVIOUR RESEARCH CENTRE

DR CLARE LLEWELLYN
Researcher

EXPERTISE
Health psychology; childhood obesity; children's appetite/eating behaviours; genetic and environmental influences on weight and appetite/eating behaviours.

RESEARCH
Research interests
The main focus of my PhD is to understand the aetiology of eating behaviours and appetite in infancy and early childhood. Specifically I'm interested in finding out:

if eating behaviours and appetitive traits are heritable
if there are systematic environmental influences on the development of eating behaviours and appetitive traits
if certain eating behaviours share a common pathway, or are independent traits

Current research
The data for my PhD comes from two longitudinal twin studies:

GEMIMI Study: A longitudinal study of appetite and growth in a cohort of 2400 families with twins, followed from birth to 5 years of age. Data collection began in January 2008 and is ongoing.

Twins Early Development Study (TEDS): An existing data set on the genetic and environmental influences on development in children, including weight and eating behaviours.

BIOGRAPHY
Qualifications
2007 MSc in Health Psychology, University College London
2006 PGDip in Psychology, London Metropolitan University
2000 BA Hons, Pembroke College, Oxford

Professional Memberships
Graduate member of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the Division of Health Psychology
BREATHE president (the British REsearch And Training in Health Psychology initiative). BREATHE organises workshops for early career health psychologists

Appointments
2001-2005: GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceutical company - completed the Commercial Management Scheme.

PUBLICATIONS

Llewellyn CH, van Jaarsveld CHM, Boniface D, Carnell S, and Wardle J. (2008). Eating rate is a heritable phenotype related to weight in children. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 88: 1560 - 1566.
Hill C, Llewellyn CH, Saxton J, Webber L, Semmler C, Carnell S, van Jaarsveld CHM, Boniface D and Wardle J. (2008). Adiposity and 'eating in the absence of hunger' in children. International Journal of Obesity, 32: 1499-1505.
Wardle J, Llewellyn C, Sanderson S and Plomin R. (2008). The FTO gene and measured food intake in children. International Journal of Obesity advance online publication 7 October 2008; doi: 10.1038/ijo.2008.174.
Llewellyn CH, Carnell S and Wardle J. (2008). Eating behaviour and weight in children. (Chapter in preparation).

This page last modified 8 June, 2011 by Mark Livermore

CONTACT DETAILS
Telephone:
+44 (0)20 7679 1263
Internal: x41263
Fax:
+44 (0)20 7679 8354
Email: c.llewellyn@ucl.ac.uk

Postal address:
Health Behaviour Research Centre, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health,
UCL, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

Office: Room 210,
1-19 Torrington Place,
WC1E 7HB