Author Archives: Niroshan Siriwardena

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Research on health effects of sleep features in BBC1 documentary ‘The truth about…sleep’

V0011624 A hospital ward for insomniacs. Pen drawing by G.E. Studdy(?I have been working on sleep and health for around 7 years now. When I first started there was very little interest. A clinician, on a national funding committee, said to me “why are you worried? Sleep is natural…” I think this attitude is finally changing.

Graham LawYou may have seen an increased interest in the media in relation to sleep. There are news articles, nearly daily, about the new research and the ‘dangers’ of bad sleep. I suppose they need to sell papers. I was recently part of a BBC1 programme (‘The truth about…sleep’) with Michael Mosely. They approached us to conduct some sort of experiment. Working with my colleague (Dr Eleanor Scott) we recorded the blood glucose in 6 participants for a week. During this time, they were required to reduce their time asleep by 3 hours on 2 consecutive nights.

The results took us by surprise. We know that this should have some sort of impact, but all six participants had raised glucose the days after their sleep restriction. And the rise was around 0,5mmol/L which, as well as being statistically significant, is clinically significant. I am busy writing this up for a journal.

Hopefully, we are going to carry on this idea by looking at shift-workers. That is the plan….

By Prof Graham Law

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Scoping review on Community First Responders (CFRs) in the UK published

Viet-Hai in his new role as Research Assistant

Viet-Hai in his new role as Research Assistant

A new study entitled, ‘Community First Responders (CFRs) and schemes in the United Kingdom: systematic scoping review‘, conducted by members of CaHRU was published on 19th June 2017 in the Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine. This article was the culmination of an initial idea for research proposed by Ian Trueman from the School of Health and Social Care. He undertook the scoping review with former colleague, Fiona Togher. Viet-Hai Phung took over from Fiona after the scoping review was completed and subsequently led writing the paper, with substantial constructive comments from Ian, Professor Niro Siriwardena and Dr Roderick Ørner, a consultant psychologist.

From an initial search of six databases, 15,696 publications were identified as being potentially relevant. After several stages of screening by title and abstract, narrowing the geographical focus and for relevance of content, as well as removing duplicates and full-text screening, nine studies were included in the final analysis.

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A number of key themes were identified by the nine publications. The study showed that people were motivated to become CFRs through an altruistic desire to help others. They generally felt rewarded by their work but recognised that the help they provided was limited by their training compared with ambulance staff. CFRs felt that better feedback would enhance their learning. Ongoing training and support were viewed as essential to enable CFRs to progress. They perceived that public recognition of the CFR role was low with patients sometimes confusing them with ambulance staff. Relationships with the ambulance service were sometimes ambivalent due to confusion over roles.

EMAS - A&E 9_750These findings establish a baseline of evidence on the work of CFRs in the UK. The team are building on this by undertaking an interview study of CFRs. Opportunities for future research include exploring the experiences and perceptions of patients who have been treated by CFRs as well as other stakeholders, including ambulance staff, while also evaluating the effectiveness and costs of CFR schemes.

By Viet-Hai Phung

 

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Community and Health Research Unit & NHS Health Research Forum, June 2017

sunflowerThe latest CaHRU/NHS Research Forum took place on 7th June 2017 at the University of Lincoln. The Research Forum, which takes place three times a year, is an opportunity for colleagues to showcase their research particularly focussing on studies conducted within Lincolnshire. The meeting began with a lunch and was attended by NHS staff, university staff and students, and colleagues interested in health and social care research.

At the forum three researchers presented their work: Helene Markham (the University of Lincoln & United Lincolnshire Hospitals); Michael Toze, PhD student at CaHRU and Dr Murray Smith, Research Fellow in Econometrics and Health Economics in CaHRU.

mtozeHelene was first to present on her doctoral study entitled: ‘Evaluating follow-up and complexity in cancer clinical trials’. Helene explained that her study seeks to develop an objective methodology to define and quantify trial complexity, intensity and workload to improve operational management and enhance models of trial delivery.

Next, Michael Toze presented his doctoral work on older Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) people’s experiences of primary care. His study sought to elicit older LGBT people’s experience of healthcare when consulting with their GP or primary care staff.

murraysmith1Last but not the least was Dr Murray Smith who discussed his work relating to ‘Value of specialist shoulder physiotherapy in the perspective of cost effectiveness’ which involved a cost analysis of extended scope physiotherapy.

All three speakers gave excellent presentations of their work, and there was a lively discussion and response to questions following each. Professor Niro Siriwardena, Director of the Community and Health Research Centre (CaHRU) thanked the speakers and the attendees for helping to make the forum a successful event.

By Joseph Akanuwe

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Mental health and stigma: why knowledge about mental illness is important

brainThe mental health charity Mind states that 1 in 4 individuals experience a mental health problem within their lifetime. Some of these individuals may experience mental health stigma, which is often due to negative connotations associated with mental health [1].

Previous research has highlighted the types of mental health stigma people experience, for example, believing individuals with a mental health disorder are dangerous, [2] and is suggested to be a result of a culture’s pre-determined beliefs. Research has also demonstrated that it is due to members of the public receiving inaccurate information from the media [3, 4]. Because of this, stigma is a big problem as it can prevent individuals from seeking help [5].

laurasimmonsNew research published this week by lead author and PhD student Laura Simmons has suggested that using knowledge and information about mental illness can be used to reduce mental health stigma.

Within her research, Laura conducted a pre and post-test and asked participants to record their level of knowledge and stigma before and after being presented with information about mental health from the charity Mind.

 

CaHRU_logotypeHer article, reducing mental health stigma: the relationship between knowledge and attitude change has been published in the European Journal of Mental Health. It demonstrates that it is possible to change attitudes that are related to mental health stigma, which she suggests should be used when designing education programmes or mental health campaigns.

Laura’s current work focuses on stress as a cause of sickness absence in the ambulance service. Research has outlined that mental health problems are prevalent among the ambulance service due to the nature of their role and reducing stigma is important for them to seek help.

Laura is a PhD student in CaHRU and the Lincoln Institute for Health.

 

 

1. Petty, R. E., D.T. Wegener & L.R. Fabrigar. (1997). Attitudes and attitude change, Annual Review of Psychology, 48, 609-647. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.psych.48.1.609

2. Crisp, A.H., M.G. Gelder, H.I. Meltzer & O.J Rowlands. (2000). Stigmatisation of people with mental illness. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 4-7. DOI: 10.1192/bjp.177.1.43.

3. Lam, C.S., H.W.H. Tsang., P.W. Corrigan., T. Lee., B. Angell., K. Shi., S. Jin & J.E. Larson. (2010). Chinese lay theories and mental illness stigma: Implications for research and practices. Journal of Rehabilitation, 76, 35-40.

4. Ineland, L., L. Jacobsson., R.E. Salander & P. Sjolander. (2008). Attitudes towards mental disorders and psychiatric treatment changes over time in a Swedish population. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 62, 192-197. DOI: 10.1080/08039480801962855.

5. Wahl, O.F. (1999). Mental health consumer’s experience of stigma. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 25, 467-478.

By Laura Simmons

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CaHRU students win top spots to present at SAPC Annual Scientific Meeting

sapcposterSeveral members of the Community and Health Research Unit have been selected for oral and elevator presentations at the forthcoming Society for Academic Primary Care Annual Scientific Meeting (SAPC ASM). This year’s conference will take place at the University of Warwick. The SAPC annual conference is the main international conference for primary care in the UK.

Dr Julie Pattinson will speak on her study, ‘Understanding reasons for variation by ethnicity in performance of general practice specialty trainees in the Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Applied Knowledge Test: cognitive interview study’.

Dr Zahid Asghar will also give an oral presentation on, ‘Performance of candidates with dyslexia in the Applied Knowledge Test for Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners.’

An oral presentation will be given by Dr Murray Smith on the ‘Effect on hypnotic prescribing of a quality improvement collaborative for primary care of insomnia: a segmented regression analysis’.

CaHRU_logotypeDr Steph Armstrong will also speak at an elevator session on, ‘Ethical considerations in prehospital ambulance based research: an interview study of expert informants’, a study funded by the Wellcome Trust as part of the Network for exploring Ethics in Ambulance Trials (NEAT) project.

Michael Toze, will give an elevator pitch on his doctoral study, ‘Coming out in General Practice: the experience of older LGBT patients – his place ta the confernece was funded through the Best Oral Presentation Prize at the recent Trent Regional SAPC Conference hosted by CaHRU and the University of Lincoln.

clematis

Finally, the abstract submitted by Joseph Akanuwe, research assistant and doctoral student at CaHRU, ‘Exploring Service User and practitioner perspectives of QCancer use in primary care consultations’ was among the top 10 highest scoring abstracts and will be eligible to be considered for the SAPC/North American Primary Care Research Group travel prize.

The whole team have done particularly well this year to be awarded oral and elevator pitches for all abstracts presented, but our doctoral students in particular have excelled.

By Niro Siriwardena