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Joseph Akanuwe receives PhD for work on communicating cancer risk

Joseph Akanuwe, doctoral student at CaHRU was recently confirmed by the College of Social Science Research Degrees Board that he be awarded his PhD for his thesis ‘Exploring service user and practitioner perspectives of using cancer risk assessment tools in primary care consultations. Cancer risk prediction tools are novel tools that combine risk factors and symptoms to predict an individual’s risk of developing cancer.

WP_20160208_16_16_01_RichThe work included a systematic scoping review followed by interviews of 19 service users and 17 primary care practitioners, the latter before and after they had used the tools in patient consultations. Participants suggested ways to best communicate cancer risk to patients in primary care consultations, emphasising the importance of: tailoring visual representation of risk; being open and honest; informing and involving patients in use of cancer risk prediction tools and providing time for listening, explaining and reassuring in the context of a professional approach.

He also found barriers to the uptake of cancer risk prediction tools including: the additional time required; worry and anxiety generated by referral for investigations; potential for over-referral; practitioner scepticism about using the new tool; and the need for evidence of effectiveness before introducing cancer risk prediction tools in general practice consultations. These barriers were perceived before the use of the tools. The findings add to the knowledge and understanding of how best to communicate cancer risk information to patients when using cancer risk prediction tools. Joseph was supervised by Profs Niro Siriwardena and Sara Owen, together with Dr Sharon Black.

By Prof Niro Siriwardena

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CaHRU presents research on sleep at college summer showcase

BrayfordThe annual research showcase, featuring speakers from the College of Social Science took place on 6 June 2018. Professor Niro Siriwardena presented on CaHRU’s work on sleep. Sleep is fundamental to our wellbeing, from birth to old age. Poor sleep affects health, sickness, life, death, productivity, and the wider economy. Sleep is as important to health as other lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise but, compared to these, is under-researched and under-invested in. There are effective psychological treatments for insomnia but these are not widely available, whereas less effective and potentially harmful drug treatments are commonly used.

CSSsummershowcase2He described the work of members of CaHRU together with partners at the University of Lincoln and other academic institutions (Oxford, Manchester, Glasgow, Ghent), in partnership with service users, staff and healthcare organisations, locally, nationally and internationally. Over the past 15 years, using systematic reviews, observational and qualitative studies, quasi-experiments and trials, staff in CaHRU have explored the problem of primary care for sleep, how this might be improved, and what effect this is having on sleep, prescribing, and health outcomes.

INB2The work has led to a major multicentre trial, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (£1.8M), investigating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of sleep restriction therapy, a behavioural treatment for insomnia, delivered in primary care. These studies and the wider impacts of this work were presented to those present.

 

[su_document url=”https://communityandhealth.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/files/2018/07/Sleep_Siriwardena.pdf” width=”660″]Multi-morbidity, goal-oriented care, the community and equity[/su_document]

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CaHRU Newsletter (Spring 2018)

CaHRU_logotypeThe latest edition of the CaHRU Newsletter (Spring 2018) was published in July 2018. The newsletter presents the work of the research centre over the previous three months and includes articles from the CaHRU blog covering publications, conferences and funding. The newsletter is written by members of the CaHRU team and produced by Sue Bowler, CaHRU administrator.

[su_document url=”https://communityandhealth.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/files/2018/07/CaHRU-Newsletter-Spring-2018.pdf” width=”660″]Multi-morbidity, goal-oriented care, the community and equity[/su_document]

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Improvement Science and Research Methods seminar: Prof Sarah Redsell on recruitment to community based trials

We had the privilege of welcoming Professor Sarah Redsell, Professor of Public Health Nursing at Anglia Ruskin University, to give the last of this season’s CaHRU/LIH Improvement Science and Research Methods seminar series.

edfHer talk entitled ‘Understanding health professional study recruitment behaviour in community-based research’described her ground-breaking work over the past decade on early detection and prevention of childhood obesity. Chilhood obesity is a major public health issues in high income countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and mainland European states. Health visitors, are in frequent contact with parents of children under five years of age who they provide a universal service to, which suggests they may be ideally placed to recruit parents and their children to NHS research studies.

The seminar focussed on challenges in recruiting parents to a feasibility study which aimed to identify and intervene with parents whose infants are at risk of developing overweight and obesity. A follow-up study used the Theoretical Domains Framework to understand health visitor and midwives study recruitment behaviour and highlighted the need to include an understanding of health professionals’ behaviour, including their knowledge, competing priorities and role conflict.

[su_document url=”https://communityandhealth.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/files/2018/07/Redsell-Understanding-HP-recruitment-250618.pdf” width=”660″]Multi-morbidity, goal-oriented care, the community and equity[/su_document]

By Prof A N Siriwardena

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Improvement Science and Research Methods seminar: Prof Alicia O’Cathain on process evaluation in clinical trials

alicia2 Professor of Health Services Research at the University of Sheffield, Alicia O’Cathain, who heads the Medical Care Research Unit at ScHARR, gave an outstanding CaHRU/LIH seminar on ‘Using process evaluations alongside randomised controlled trials and other outcome evaluations’ on 23 May 2018 at the University of Lincoln.

CaHRU_logotypeThe seminar was based on the Medical Research Council guidance on process evaluations (Moore G, Audrey S, Barker M, Bond L, Bonell C, Cooper C, Hardeman W, Moore L, O’Cathain A, Tannaze T, Wight D, Baird J. Process evaluation of complex interventions. Medical Research Council guidance. BMJ 2015 350:h1258) which Prof O’Cathain co-authored. She described the importance of process evaluations using mixed methods in helping researchers realise how understanding trial processes can help us appreciate how or why a complex interventions works or does not work as intended, which is critical to its effectiveness and subsequent implementation.

LIFH-logo-web2She went on to describe the contextual factors that determine how an intervention works, limit what is delivered, affect how it works and govern what effects it has. Qualitative interviews with those delivering or receiving the intervention can help elucidate the components that are deemed useful and their perceived benefits while quantitative analysis can help to enumerate the mediators of any effects. The analysis can be integrated to develop a logic model and programme theory of the intervention.

Prof O’Cathain concluded by covering key aspects of planning, analysis and reporting of process evaluations and introducing her new book on the subject.

[su_document url=”https://communityandhealth.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/files/2018/07/OCathain-Using-process-evaluations-alongside-RCTs.pdf” width=”660″]Multi-morbidity, goal-oriented care, the community and equity[/su_document]

 

By Prof A N Siriwardena