Ian Kellar, DPhil

After graduating with a BA in Social Psychology from the University of Sussex, Ian undertook a D.Phil. entitled “Evaluating Brief Theory-Based Interventions to Promote Health Behaviours”, supervised by Professor Charles Abraham, and funded by an ESRC studentship award. Ian subsequently accepted a post as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Care Research at the University of Brighton, working on a National Co-ordinating Centre for NHS Service Delivery and Organisation R&D scoping exercise entitled “Concordance, Adherence and Compliance in Medicine Taking”, as part of a team lead by Professor Rob Horne.

In August 2005 Ian joined the General Practice & Primary Care Research Unit in the role of research psychologist (social / health). He is currently involved in a trial of a decision aid for individuals considering undergoing screening for type 2 diabetes (the DICISION study), a trial to evaluate an intervention to support adherence to medication for type 2 diabetes (Support and Advice for Medication Study), and a study to quantify the effect of measurement and feedback on physical activity behaviour (The FAB Study: Feedback, Awareness and Behaviour in the Fenland Study).

His current research interests include techniques to help people remember to remember, self monitoring, and the use of virtual environments and context aware mobile and social technologies to develop and deliver very brief interventions. Generally, he is interested in the gap between intentions and behaviour, particularly in relation to repeated health behaviours, such as medication adherence, diet and exercise.
Ian attained chartered status as a health psychologist in 2006. He is a member of both the Society for Academic Primary Care and the UK Society for Behavioural Medicine. Ian is a member of the editorial board of the British Journal of Health Psychology, and has reviewed articles for Annals of Behavioral Medicine, British Journal of Health Psychology, British Journal of Psychology, Diabetic Medicine, European Journal of Social Psychology, Health Education Research, Implementation Science, Journal of Health Psychology, Journal of Psychosomatic Research and Psychology & Health, and grants for Asthma UK and Diabetes UK. Ian served on the conference scientific committees for the UKSBM 2nd and 3rd scientific meetings and the 10th annual BPS DHP conference, and as a reviewer for the SAPC ASM 2007 and 2009, SAPC Madingley 2011, and the UKSBM 4th and 6th Annual Scientific Meetings. Ian served on the UKSBM executive committee in the role of publicity officer from 2007-2011.