Population Health and Health Services Research Joint Seminar Series - Autumn/Winter 2022

PHHSR seminar series 2022 mmc

The Health Behaviour Change Research Group, the HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland, the Health Promotion Research Centre and PPI Ignite Network @ University of Galway are running a lunchtime seminar series on ZOOM to highlight research in the areas of Population Health and Health Services. Diary dates below and registration links below!‌

To view recordings of previous seminars, please visit HERE

ALL WELCOME! Please feel free to invite colleagues and contacts who may be interested in attending.


  • Tues 13th Dec. 1-2pm: Prof Mary McCarron REGISTER!

Seminar title: A national Framework of Values and Principles for Public and Patient Involvement in Research.

Summary: Professor McCarron’s talk will focus on the National Framework of Values and Principles for Public and Patient involvement in research. Over the past year, a group of PPI contributors and researchers have been co-designing a set of values and principles to drive excellence in Irish PPI. Trinity College Dublin and the PPI Ignite Network are proud to launch this framework of values and principles to drive our quality journey. As part of the National PPI Festival, we invite you to join us in person to celebrate this achievement. Join Professor McCarron as she describes the process of developing the framework and how the values can be applied and implemented in PPI research.

Biography: Professor Mary McCarron, PhD RNID RGN BNS FTCD is Professor of Ageing and Intellectual Disability, Director of the Trinity Centre for Ageing and Intellectual Disability (TCAID) and Executive Director of the National Intellectual Disability Memory Service. She has held many senior leadership roles in Trinity College including Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Head of the School of Nursing and Midwifery.

Professor McCarron is the founder and Principal Investigator for IDS-TILDA, the longitudinal comparative study on ageing in persons with intellectual disability including persons with Down syndrome, a global first. IDS-TILDA increases understanding about how lives and chronic conditions change over time for this population, drives changes on healthcare practice and national health policy. Professor McCarron has also led a longitudinal cohort study of dementia in people with Down syndrome spanning over 25 years, which has led to the development of Ireland's first dedicated National Memory Service for people with an intellectual disability, where she serves as Executive Director.

A champion of patient and public involvement in research (PPI) McCarron is Principal Investigator of PPI Ignite Programme at Trinity College Dublin, part of the national network among universities in Ireland funded by the HRB. She received the inaugural HRB Impact Award. She is co-applicant on the HRB's Clinical Research Network Awards for Dementia Trials Ireland (DTI), a world-class clinical trials' infrastructure to support and grow dementia intervention studies. In addition, she is the Irish Lead on the H21 Consortium working on Clinical and trial outcome measures for dementia in individuals with Down Syndrome,

Professor McCarron has been a key advisor on ageing and policy issues to various governmental and other groups at a national and international level and an active member of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSIDD).

  • Tues 13th Dec. 1-2pm: Prof Mary McCarron REGISTER! 


Seminar Title: Dementia Research in Primary Care: what I have learnt.

Summary: Tony's talk will focus on his experience as an academic GP, combining clinical work with dementia care research and will highlight opportunities to contribute to national healthcare policies

Bio: Tony is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of General Practice in UCC and is a GP based in Kinsale.  His has a clinical and research interest in dementia care.  He has led dementia care service delivery projects and national educational projects,  supporting GPs and multidisciplinary Primary Care Team members in their delivery of integrated dementia care in the community. He has developed dementia elearning programmes and guidelines for the Irish College of General Practitioners. Tony is a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel of the The Alzheimer Society of Ireland and is a member of the HSE's National Dementia Strategy Programme Implementation Board.  He is currently supervising postgraduate students in the areas of dementia care, palliative care and integrated care of the older person.
 
 

 

Seminar Title: Perceptions of the professionalisation and future of social care workers in Ireland.
Summary: In spite of the inclusion of social care worker in the Health and Social Care Professionals Act (2005) almost twenty years ago and the impending opening of a register for social care workers in November 2023, social care work and workers have remained largely conspicuous by their absence. This is perhaps all the more surprising given that social care workers are likely to be the largest single profession to be regulated by CORU (The Health and Social Care Professionals Council). However, as the findings of this survey (n=350) with social care workers indicates, social care work is a divided profession, which is perceived to be poorly understood by other health and social care professionals, and which felt to be almost entirely absent from public awareness. In large part, such perceptions can be explained by state rather than profession led moves to regulation, the continued dominance of employers in areas such as job title, roles and responsibilities, and progression and career pathways, and, shaped by such drivers the internalisation by social care workers of perceptions of social care work as a lesser profession. Social care workers are enthusiastically optimistic that the opening of a register and thus, the establishment of regulation of the social care profession by CORU will address many of these issues. However, registration and regulation may be something of a double-edged sword and this presentation draws upon the survey findings to explore what registration and regulation may mean for social care workers and social care work.

Dr Martin Power is a lecturer in the Discipline of Health Promotion and a former Director of the BA (Hons) Social Care Programme. Martin has published on topics such as risk and regulation, care planning and health and social care professionals’ education. Martin’s research in recent years has focused on the professionalisation of social care work in the lead up to the opening of a register, with topics including registration awareness amongst social care workers, recruitment and retention in social care work and, most recently perceptions of professionalisation. Martin has presented the findings of his research to CORU’s Social Care Workers Registration Board, as well as more widely at conferences and seminars.


We are delighted to have Dr Anda Dragomir as our first speaker of the series. Anda is a clinical psychologist and postdoctoral research fellow from Concordia University in Montréal, Canada. Her research focuses on behavioural change counselling training for healthcare professionals in the context of chronic disease prevention and management. She has received extensive training in psychophysiology and behavioural trial design and development and works as a clinician with individuals suffering from chronic pain and other chronic medical conditions. Anda is currently the post-doctoral researcher with the Health Behaviour Change Research Group on the Making MECC Work project.
 
Seminar TitleStakeholder-driven development of Motivational Communication, a behaviour change counseling training for healthcare professionals
Summary: A global view of the design and development of a 4-hour training in Motivational Communication, a collaborative communication style for health behaviour change that was created for use by healthcare professionals in the context for chronic disease management. The process includes stakeholder-driven methods and iterative development that led to the production MOTIVATOR, a continued professional development training accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
 
 

Our seminars are open to everyone! Please feel free to invite colleagues and contacts who may be interested in attending. To view recordings of previous seminars, please visit HERE

Monday, 9 March 2020

Designing Effective Interventions for Health Behaviour Change: An Introduction Monday 9th March 2020 (10am - 5pm), School of Psychology, NUI Galway Reistration now open on Eventbrite! DetailsMany interventions which seek to promote health are dependent on effectively changing people’s behaviour – whether this is the behaviour of the public, health professionals, or users of health services. Often, our interventions fail, because we do not take account of what is really causing the behaviour or use this in developing our interventions. Behavioural science has made significant advances within the last decade in developing methodologies available to intervention designers. For success, intervention designers should: Use and develop a theoretical understanding of the behaviour they wish to change and target factors which are likely to effect change Describe interventions to facilitate replication (using behaviour change technique taxonomies) and to test the mechanisms of action through which interventions work Aims and ObjectivesIn this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to learn about, and practice using, emerging methods for designing and evaluating behavioural interventions. On completion of the workshop, participants will be able to: Apply a structured approach to using behavioural theory for intervention development Use the COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation – behaviour) model and the Behaviour Change Wheel to design interventions Specify and describe intervention content using Behaviour Change Technique taxonomies Test the theoretical underpinnings of interventions Understand processes of change as part of intervention evaluation Workshop Facilitators Prof Molly Byrne, Health Research Board (HRB) Research Leader and Director of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group at the School of Psychology, NUI Galway. Dr Lisa Hynes, Postdoctoral researcher & MY COMRADE Plus project manager, HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland, NUI Galway. Intended ParticipantsThis workshop is for researchers, health and social care professionals, policy makers and students interested in behaviour change. BookingPlaces are limited and book up fast. To avoid disappointment, book on Eventbrite now!For further assistance, please contact Valerie Parker at valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie or on 091 494 454. To hear about our upcoming events, join our Mailing List by emailing valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie  or follow us on Twitter @hbcrg

Tuesday, 25 February 2020

Upcoming Seminar Dr Elena Vaughan - 'Stigma Habitus: symbolic and structural violence in the reproduction of HIV-related stigma in Ireland' Tuesday February 25th, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), G065, School of Psychology, NUI Galway The Health Behaviour Change Research Group, HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland, the Health Promotion Research Centre and PPI Ignite @ NUI Galway are running a Spring 2020 joint seminar series to highlight research in the area of population health and health services. The seminars will take place on Tuesday February 25th, Thursday March 19th, Thursday April 23rd and Tuesday May 26th  at 1pm in G065, the School of Psychology. All are welcome to attend, and a light lunch will be served from 12.30pm. We are delighted that Dr Elena Vaughan will deliver the first seminar next Tuesday 25th February at 1pm, on the topic of ‘Stigma Habitus: symbolic and structural violence in the reproduction of HIV-related stigma in Ireland’.  Dr Elena Vaughan is a post-doctoral researcher in the Health Promotion Research Centre in NUI Galway. Her PhD research investigated HIV-related stigma in Ireland. Specifically her work explored the relationship between media driven discourses of HIV and the embodied and enacted stigma experiences of people living with HIV in Ireland. Her research interests include health inequalities, HIV and sexual health, LGBT health, health-related stigmas and other social and structural determinants of health. Increasingly, health scholarship is recognising that stigma is a significant social determinant of health, acting as a barrier to accessing screening and care, adherence to treatment and, engagement with services (Stangl et al., 2019). Though by no means a new phenomenon, scholarly interest in stigma as a driver of health inequalities has grown exponentially since Goffman’s (1963) seminal work ‘Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity.’ As Tyler (2018) has argued however, scholarship on stigma ‘…often side-lines questions about where stigma is produced, by whom and for what purposes’ (p. 721). Similarly, Parker and Aggleton (2003) have called for research that interrogates ‘the social, cultural, political and economic determinants and consequences of stigmatization’ (p. 20). In response to such calls, Dr Elena Vaughan conducted research on HIV-related stigma in Ireland in order to explore the processes involved in the reproduction of stigma. Drawing on the findings from her work this seminar will explore health-related stigma through a Bourdieuian lens, offering a re-conceptualisation of the stigma process that acknowledges the constitutive roles of discourse, culture and power in determining health outcomes (Green & Labonte, 2008). Upcoming Seminar Schedule – Save the dates! Thursday March 19th Prof Michel Wensing, Implementation Science in Health- still much to do Thursday April 23rd Dr Nancy Santesso, Engagement of Key Stakeholders in Evidence Synthesis Tuesday May 26th Robert A. Joyce & Sinéad M. Hynes Five positive outcomes from integrating PPI in our research: experiences from a feasibility trial in Multiple Sclerosis (COB-MS)

Tuesday, 3 December 2019

The Health Behaviour Change Research Group, HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland, and the Health Promotion Research Centre are running an Autumn 2019 joint seminar series to highlight research in the area of population health and health services. All are welcome to attend, and a light lunch will be served from 12.30pm. We are delighted that Professor Jeremy Grimshaw, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute will deliver the next seminar on Tuesday 3rd December at 1pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), G065, School of Psychology, NUI Galway on the topic of ‘Optimising audit and feedback to improve care and population outcomes’.  Co-hosted by the Health Behavioural Change Research Change Group and the HRB Trials Methodology Research Network Prof Jeremy Grimshaw received a MBChB (MD equivalent) from the University of Edinburgh, UK. He trained as a family physician prior to undertaking a PhD in health services research at the University of Aberdeen. He moved to Canada in 2002. His research focuses on the evaluation of interventions to disseminate and implement evidence-based practice. He is a Senior Scientist, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, a Full Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Health Knowledge Transfer and Uptake. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal College of Edinburgh. He has been awarded the CIHR Knowledge Translation award twice, and is the 2018 CIHR Barer-Flood career achievement award winner for Health Services and Policy Research. He has over 550 peer reviewed publications. To read more about Prof Grimshaw and his work, please visit the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the Centre for Implementation Research. Prof Grimshaw is a recipient of the Ireland Canada University Foundation Flaherty Visiting Professorship. He will return to NUI Galway for a 12 week visit in Spring 2020.

Monday, 21 October 2019

Designing Effective Interventions for Health Behaviour Change: An Introduction Monday 21st October 2019 (10am - 5pm), School of Psychology, NUI Galway Reistration now open on Eventbrite! DetailsMany interventions which seek to promote health are dependent on effectively changing people’s behaviour – whether this is the behaviour of the public, health professionals, or users of health services. Often, our interventions fail, because we do not take account of what is really causing the behaviour or use this in developing our interventions. Behavioural science has made significant advances within the last decade in developing methodologies available to intervention designers. For success, intervention designers should: Use and develop a theoretical understanding of the behaviour they wish to change and target factors which are likely to effect change Describe interventions to facilitate replication (using behaviour change technique taxonomies) and to test the mechanisms of action through which interventions work Aims and ObjectivesIn this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to learn about, and practice using, emerging methods for designing and evaluating behavioural interventions. On completion of the workshop, participants will be able to: Apply a structured approach to using behavioural theory for intervention development Use the COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation – behaviour) model and the Behaviour Change Wheel to design interventions Specify and describe intervention content using Behaviour Change Technique taxonomies Test the theoretical underpinnings of interventions Understand processes of change as part of intervention evaluation Workshop Facilitators Prof Molly Byrne, Health Research Board (HRB) Research Leader and Director of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group at the School of Psychology, NUI Galway. Dr Jenny Mc Sharry, Lecturer at the School of Psychology, and Co-Director, Health Behaviour Change Research Group, NUI Galway, and Registered Health Psychologist with the UK Health and Care Professions Council. Intended ParticipantsThis workshop is for researchers, health and social care professionals, policy makers and students interested in behaviour change. BookingPlaces are limited and book up fast. To avoid disappointment, book on Eventbrite now!For further assistance, please contact Valerie Parker at valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie or on 091 494 454. To hear about our upcoming events, join our Mailing List by emailing valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie  or follow us on Twitter @hbcrg

Friday, 1 November 2019

The Health Behaviour Change Research Group, HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland, and the Health Promotion Research Centre are running an Autumn 2019 joint seminar series to highlight research in the area of population health and health services. The seminars take place on November 1st, November 12th and December 3rd  at 1pm in the School of Psychology. All are welcome to attend, and a light lunch will be served from 12.30pm. We are delighted that Professor Andrew Murphy and Dr Ray O’Connor will deliver the First seminar on Fri 1st Nov, on the topic of ‘Practice and Patient recruitment in primary care’. Details below. All are welcome, and please feel free to circulate to colleagues and contacts who may be interested in attending. Optimising audit and feedback to improve care and population outcomes Tuesday 3rd December at 1pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), G065, School of Psychology, NUI Galway Co-hosted by the Health Behavioural Change Research Change Group and the HRB Trials Methodology Research Network Prof Jeremy Grimshaw received a MBChB (MD equivalent) from the University of Edinburgh, UK. He trained as a family physician prior to undertaking a PhD in health services research at the University of Aberdeen. He moved to Canada in 2002. His research focuses on the evaluation of interventions to disseminate and implement evidence-based practice. He is a Senior Scientist, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, a Full Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Health Knowledge Transfer and Uptake. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal College of Edinburgh. He has been awarded the CIHR Knowledge Translation award twice, and is the 2018 CIHR Barer-Flood career achievement award winner for Health Services and Policy Research. He has over 550 peer reviewed publications. To read more about Prof Grimshaw and his work, please visit the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the Centre for Implementation Research. Prof Grimshaw is a recipient of the Ireland Canada University Foundation Flaherty Visiting Professorship. He will return to NUI Galway for a 12 week visit in Spring 2020. Development of Health Promotion in Saudi Healthcare transformation Programme Tuesday 12th November, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), G065, School of Psychology, NUI Galway Dr Albalawi is a Health Promotion Specialist. Skilled in Social Media Analytics, Agenda Setting, and Health Communication with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) focused in Health Promotion and Health Communication from National University of Ireland, Galway. He is currently working as visiting research fellow at the Health Promotion Research Centre, NUI Galway. He is also a consultant at Vision Realisation Office, Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia, and a consultant at Saudi CDC. Practice and Patient Recruitment in Primary Care Friday November 1st, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), G065, School of Psychology, NUI Galway Professor Andrew Murphy is the Director of the HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland. Andrew is also the Professor of General Practice at NUI Galway and a GP in Turloughmore Medical Centre. Prof Murphy has a distinguished research career, including leading a clinical trial on the provision of secondary cardiac care in the community which was, at the time, the largest academic-lead trial ever conducted on the island of Ireland. Andrew’s  research, largely quantitative and always collaborative, addresses chronic disease management and professional practice in the community. In leading this Network, he builds on previous collaborations with partners in RSCI, QUB and the ICGP. With significant input from the public/patient guiding the research, Andrew has a vision that this Network will break new ground to answer common problems in primary care, that will improve individual patient health and healthcare Dr Ray O’Connor is a GP Fellow with the HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland , working to develop and implement a general practice information program of assessment, feedback and training intended to improve the quality of data recording in the network. He has worked in the Irish healthcare system continuously, working primarily in deprived areas of Limerick city. Dr O’Connor is also very active in teaching in Limerick, as medical director of the Medical Exercise programme, assistant programme director of the Mid-West Specialist Training Programme in General Practice, and group leader of an ICGP small group continuing medical education. From 2017 to 2019, Dr. O’Connor was a senior research fellow in the department of general practice at the University of Limerick Graduate Entry Medical School. His research interests are varied, including chronic disease management and education. He has published 56 papers in peer-reviewed publications over the last 33 years and has acted as a Reviewer for Primary Healthcare Research and Development, Irish Medical Journal, BMJ Open and Journal of Thoracic Disease.

Wednesday, 29 May 2019

Wednesday 29th May, 1-2pm, School of Pschhology, NUI Galway. All welcome! ABSTRACTHealthier You: the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NHS DPP) is currently offered to people in England who are at risk of type 2 diabetes.  NHS DPP is an ambitious, large-scale programme, offering a nine-month group-based intervention to support behavioural change in diet and exercise, with a view to reducing the risk of diabetes.DIPLOMA is a large multi-disciplinary research programme based at the University of Manchester and funded by NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research, which is undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the implementation, delivery and outcomes of the NHS DPP.The seminar will describe the methodological challenges of undertaking an evaluation of such a complex national health programme and present some early insights of the evaluation. About the speakerDr Sarah Cotterill is a senior lecturer in health service research and statistics in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Manchester.  She works in the fields of public health, behaviour change and research methodology. Sarah started out as a social scientist testing out ways of encouraging people to undertake civic behaviour (recycling, charitable donations, volunteering). Since moving to health research in 2010, her research has focussed on interventions to change health behaviours of patients and clinical behaviours of health professionals.  Sarah has expertise in the design and analysis of randomised controlled trials and feasibility studies for the evaluation of health and public policy interventions. To hear about our upcoming events, join our Mailing List by emailing valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie  or follow us on Twitter @hbcrg

Tuesday, 16 April 2019

Bridging the Care Gap: An evaluation of palliative day-care services Tuesday 16th April, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), G010, Hardiman Research Building, NUI Galway Palliative day care services provide individual, patient centred and holistic care acting on domains including but not restricted to medical models of care. Daycare is traditionally an under researched area; it can also be difficult to evaluate from the patient perspective. This study adopted a mixed methods approach that used patients and staff input to design and deliver a study that evaluated day care services. Researchers found that Daycare was of great importance to the patients and their families, particular aspects of the service that were seen to be crucial were the socio-medical model, the wide variety of therapeutic services, provision of transport and the social supportive environment.Principal Investigators: Dr Catherine Anne Field and Dr Geraldine Mc DarbyCollaborators: Galway Hospice, Sora Abdul Fatta (NUIG Student Researcher) Dr Catherine Anne Field, (BSocSc, MSc, PhD) is lecturer in health promotion in the School of Health Science at the National University of Ireland Galway since 2013. Catherine Anne completed her undergraduate degree in Social Science at University College Dublin (UCD) and a Masters in Health Policy at the London School of Economics (LSE). She initially worked for six years in the area of community based addiction care and mental health in Ireland and the United Kingdom in a clinical and research remit. After which she joined the School of Applied Social Science at UCD where she worked as a Research Assistant and University Teacher.   She was awarded her PhD from UCD in 2013 for her study ' The management of problem alcohol use among patients attending primary care for opiate substitution treatment’. The PhD was part of a Health Research Board funded project, and the findings were used to develop clinical guidelines for the management of problem alcohol use among drug users in in primary care. She was also a co-reviewer and co-author on a Cochrane Systematic Review – “Psychosocial interventions for problem alcohol use among drug users”. Catherine Anne is actively involved in the promotion of compassion, empathy and resilience in healthcare professionals and is a facilitator for the Schwartz Rounds at Galway University Hospital.

Thursday, 11 April 2019

Open Science for Early Career Researchers in Health: an introductory two-day workshop Location: Room GO65, School of Psychology, NUI Galway 53.280044, -9.062179Cost: €50Registration link: EVENTBRITE Event outline:Open Science is ‘the movement to make scientific research, data and dissemination accessible to all levels of an inquiring society’. As well as making the outputs of research accessible to all stakeholders (i.e. researchers, policymakers, practitioners and members of the public), Open Science is about extending the principles of openness to the whole research cycle, i.e. sharing and collaborating as early as possible with all stakeholders to achieve a systemic change to the way science and research is done. Ensuring that health research science is open, accessible and usable is crucial in order to achieve the greatest possible impact for patients and end users. This two-day workshop aims to build capacity in open science specifically amongst early career researchers (ECRs - e.g. MSc, PhD, postdoctoral researchers, early career academics) in Irish health research. The workshop objectives are to 1) provide a general overview of open science, its components and principles, and 2) to develop basic open science knowledge and skills in a) research design and planning, b) data management and analysis, c) research reporting and d) publication and dissemination. In doing so, the event aims to cultivate a generation of future Irish health researchers who are passionate and knowledgeable about open science principles and ideals, to facilitate a cultural shift towards openness. Speakers:This event includes a stellar lineup of national and international speakers including Professor Declan Devane (NUI Galway, HRB-Trials Methodology Research Network, Evidence Synthesis Ireland), Dr Sile Lane (AllTrials Initiative, Sense about Science), Dr Hopin Lee (Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences Catalyst/University of Oxford Centre for Statistics in Medicine), Dr Chris Noone (NUI Galway), Dr Darren Dahly (University College Cork, HRB Clinical Research Facility), Dr Karen Matvienko-Sikar (University College Cork, Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences Catalyst), Vicky Hellon (F1000, HRB Open Research) and many more still to be announced! Full schedule and speakers' bios availabe here:ECR Open Science in Health 2019 To register, please visit EVENTBRITE For more information, please contact:Dr. Elaine Toomey | Research FellowHealth Research Board Postdoctoral Research Fellow | Associate Director of Cochrane IrelandHealth Behaviour Change Research Group | Evidence Synthesis IrelandSchool of Psychology | School of Nursing and MidwiferyNational University of Ireland, GalwayEmail: elaine.toomey@nuigalway.ieTel: +353 (0)91 49 4458

Monday, 18 February 2019

Designing Effective Interventions for Health Behaviour Change: An Introduction Many interventions which seek to promote health are dependent on effectively changing people’s behaviour – whether this is the behaviour of the public, health professionals or users of health services. Often, our interventions fail, because we do not take account of what is really causing the behaviour or use this in developing our interventions. Behavioural science has made significant advances within the last decade in developing methodologies available to intervention designers. For success, intervention designers should: Use and develop a theoretical understanding of the behaviour they wish to change and target factors which are likely to effect change Describe interventions to facilitate replication (using behaviour change technique taxonomies) and to test the mechanisms of action through which interventions work Aims and ObjectivesIn this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to learn about, and practice using, emerging methods for designing and evaluating behavioural interventions. On completion of the workshop, participants will be able to: Apply a structured approach to using behavioural theory for intervention development Use the COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation – behaviour) model and the Behaviour Change Wheel to design interventions Specify and describe intervention content using Behaviour Change Technique taxonomies Test the theoretical underpinnings of interventions Understand processes of change as part of intervention evaluation Workshop Facilitators Prof Molly Byrne, Health Research Board (HRB) Research Leader and Director of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group at NUI Galway Dr Jenny Mc Sharry,  Lecturer at the School of Psychology; Co-Director, Health Behaviour Change Research Group at NUI Galway; and Registered Health Psychologist with the UK Health and Care Professions Council. Dr Oonagh Meade, Postdoctoral Researcher andHealth Behaviour Change Research Group at NUI Galway,  Intended ParticipantsThis workshop is for researchers, practitioners, policy makers and students interested in behaviour change. BookingPlaces are limited and book up fast! To avoid disappointment, book on EVENTBRITE now! For further assistance, please contact Valerie Parker at valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie or on 091 494 454.

Tuesday, 6 November 2018

Workshop: Learning from past success  This workshop aims to provide training in applying for Health Research Board (HRB) Applied Partnership Awards (APA). It is suitable for researchers, health professionals and policy makers who want to learn more about the process of developing HRB APA applications. Applied Partnership Awards are designed to “bring knowledge users and academic researchers together to develop research projects that address a specific need within the Irish health or social care system” (HRB, 2018). It is expected that research findings from APA projects will directly impact on decision making in the knowledge user’s organisation. In 2019 there will be one round of APA funding with two separate peer review cycles. The closing date for Cycle 1 is the 25th January 2019. The closing date for Cycle 2 is the 13th September 2019. During the workshop, Sara Lord from the HRB will present an overview of the APA award call and requirements. Previous successful APA awardees will also share their experiences of developing their project applications through presentations and a panel discussion. Participants will also have an opportunity to learn about the HBCRG’s new online Integrated Knowledge Translation resource kit. This resource is designed to support Irish researchers, health professionals and policy makers to conduct healthcare research that is responsive to the needs of knowledge users. For details and to register, click HERE.

Tuesday, 9 October 2018

HBCRG and HRB-TMRN Winter School The Health Behaviour Change Research Group in collaboration with the HRB-Trials Methodology Research Network are delighted to host a 2-day Winter School (9th-10th Oct 2018) on Developing Best Practice for Conducting Trials of Complex and Behaviour Change Interventions in Health, focusing specifically on issues relevant to conducting trials of behaviour change interventions. This workshop will bring together leading national and international experts from the field of behaviour change and complex intervention research for two days of presentations, workshops and discussion on best research practice. Who should attend?The winter school is suitable for anyone interested in developing their knowledge and skills of conducting trials of complex and behaviour change interventions. Guest speakers include: Prof David Richards, Director, Complex Interventions Research Group, University of Exeter Medical School, UK Prof Molly Byrne, Director, Health Behaviour Change Research Group, NUI Galway Prof Wendy Hardeman, School of Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, UK Dr Catherine Houghton, Co-Chair of the Qualitative Research in Trials Centre: QUESTS, NUI Galway Paul Montgomery, Professor of Social Intervention, University of Birmingham, UK The full schedule and registration is available on Eventbrite and on the HRB-TMRN website.

Tuesday, 21 August 2018

NUI Galway’s School of Psychology will host the 32nd Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society next week from 21-25August. The European Health Psychology Society is the largest professional organisation of health psychologists in Europe with more than 600 members worldwide and 750 delegates will attend. Hosting an event of this scale in Galway is estimated to benefit the local economy by almost €1 million with funding from Fáilte Ireland to support international promotion and the Health Research Board to support the running of this event. NUI Galway also successfully hosted the event in 2005 when more than 600 delegates attended the four-day conference. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Health Psychology Across the Lifespan: Uniting Research, Practice and Policy’. Experts from around the world will meet and share their latest research findings on a range of established and emerging topics in health psychology research including: the role of technology in changing health relevant behaviour; coping with chronic illness; the impact of psychological and social stress on health; and how behavioural science can inform how healthcare is delivered. The event will also provide an extensive programme of training workshops where delegates can update their knowledge and skills in research and will highlight the leading role that the School of Psychology at NUI Galway plays in research and practice relating to psychological and behavioural processes in health, illness and healthcare. Keynote speakers will include Professor Alex Rothman from the University of Minnesota in the US and Professor Molly Byrne from the Health Beahviour Change Research Group, who will speak about the role of patients and the public in informing this research. To stay informed about the conference, follow @ehps2018 or search for #ehps2018 on Twitter, or visit the conference website www.ehps2018.net 

Tuesday, 12 June 2018

INTeRACT for Health: Increasing Integrated Knowledge Translation Capacity for Impact Tuesday 12th 2018, School of Psychology, NUI Galway Registration is free, but places are limited so register now to secure your place! To register please CLICK HERE OverviewThis one-day workshop aims to provide training in integrated Knowledge Translation to members of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group at NUI Galway, our partners within Strategic Planning and Transformation in the Health Services Executive (formerly the Health and Well-being division) and other interested stakeholders. Integrated Knowledge Translation is an approach that seeks to optimise the usefulness and relevance of research by involving those who will use research knowledge from the very beginning of planning process. The workshop will address integrated Knowledge translation in the context of chronic illness prevention, self-management and health behaviour change. The training will be led by an experienced facilitator, Professor Maureen Dobbins from McMaster University, Canada. She holds cross appointments with the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, the School of Rehabilitation Sciences, and the Masters of Science in eHealth program. Attendees will learn about what integrated Knowledge Translation is, current international best practice, and the importance of integrated Knowledge Translation within Irish healthcare research. National and international speakers will showcase examples of good integrated Knowledge Translation in action. Participants will learn about resources they can use in order to apply integrated Knowledge Translation within their own work and will have the opportunity to feed in to the development of an integrated Knowledge Translation toolkit for researchers, health professionals and policy makers in healthcare research in Ireland. The full schedule is availabe to download HERE: INTeRACT Schedule Speakers include: Professor Maureen Dobbins, McMaster University, Canada Dr Teresa McGuire, Principal Officer, Research Services, Department of Health Professor Anne Rogers, Professor of Health Systems Implementation, University of Southampton, U.K. Professor Molly Byrne, Health Behaviour Change Research Group, NUI Galway Dr Oonagh Meade, Health Behaviour Change Research Group, NUI Galway Dr Aisling Sheehan, Centre For Effective Services  Anne Pardy, Infant Health and Wellbeing, Department of Public Health, Health and Wellbeing Division, HSE Dr Emma Frew, Reader in Health Economics, University of Birmingham, U.K. Fiona Riordan, School of Public Health, University College Cork Professor Saoirse Nic Ghabhainn, Health Promotion Research Centre, NUI Galway  The full schedule is availabe to download HERE: INTeRACT Schedule Who should attend?This workshop is suitable for researchers, health professionals and policy makers with an interest in chronic illness prevention, self-management, health behaviour change and integrated Knowledge Translation. Registration is free, but places are limited so register now to secure your place! To register please CLICK HERE

Monday, 23 April 2018

Optimization of Behavioral and Biobehavioral Interventions: An Introduction to the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) for building more effective, efficient, economical, and scalable interventions Presenter: Professor Linda M. Collins, Fulbright Specialist and Director, The Methodology Center, Pennsylvania State University, USA Introduction video to MOST with Linda Collins at: https://methodology.psu.edu/publications/news/most-intro-video Development of the majority of behavioral, biobehavioral, and biomedical interventions in use today has been based primarily on the two-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT). The RCT is an excellent way to determine whether an intervention is effective. However, the treatment package approach is less helpful in providing empirical information that can be used to optimize the intervention to achieve improved effectiveness, efficiency, economy and scalability. In this workshop an innovative methodological framework, the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), will be presented. MOST is based on ideas inspired by engineering methods, which stress both ongoing improvement of products and careful management of research and implementation resources. A comprehensive strategy for intervention optimization, MOST includes three phases: preparation, optimization, and evaluation. MOST can be used to build a new intervention or to improve an existing intervention. Using MOST it is possible to engineer an intervention to meet a specific criterion; for example, the objective might be to identify the intervention that achieves the best outcome obtainable for less than a specified implementation cost. This workshop will provide an introduction to MOST, with the objective of helping participants gain the skill set needed to be successful obtaining funding to apply MOST in their research. Ongoing intervention development studies using the MOST approach will be used as illustrative examples. A substantial amount of time will be devoted to experimental design, which is an important tool in MOST. In particular, factorial experiments and fractional factorial experiments will be discussed. Time will be reserved for open discussion of how the concepts presented can be applied in the research of attendees. Following the workshop, attendees also have the option to book a 1-hour one-to-one meeting with Prof Collins on Wednesday 25 April to discuss the specifics of your research project. Please email valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie to reserve a slot. To book a place, please visit our EVENTBRITE page Schedule DAY 1 10:30 – 11:00                Introductions11:00 – 12:30                Introduction to MOST12:30 – 13:30                Lunch13:30 – 14:30                The preparation phase: conceptual model and optimization criterion14:30 – 15:30                The optimization phase: Factorial optimization trials15:30 – 15:45                Break15:45 – 17:00                The optimization phase: Factorial optimization trials (continued) and the interaction                                                Q&A DAY 2 9:30 – 11:00                  The optimization phase: Fractional factorial optimization trials11:00 – 11:15                Break11:15 – 12:30                The optimization phase: Multi-level situations and factorial experiments                                                How to power factorial experiments: Conclusion-priority vs. Decision-priority perspectives on research12:30 – 13:30                Lunch13:30 – 14:30                Concluding the optimization phase: Deciding on what constitutes the optimized intervention14:30 – 15:00                Successful implementation of a factorial optimization trial in the field15:00 – 16:00                Basing a successful grant proposal on MOST                                                Q & A DAY 3: Optional 1 hour one-to-one meeting with Prof Collins to discuss the specifics of your research project. Please email valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie to reserve a slot. Intended Participants: Researchers, Principle Investigators, Statisicians, Trial Designers, Health Economists, Researcher Funders, and  other Researchers including PhD students interested in RCTs and research methodologies. Workshop fees: €170 (general admission); €95 (student, valid ID required), which includes workshop materials, a copy of Prof Collins new book "Optimization of Behavioral, Biobehavioral, and Biomedical Interventions: The Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST)", lunch, and refreshments. To book a place, please visit our EVENTBRITE page Linda M. Collins, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Human Development & Family Studies at the Pennsylvania State University, United States. She is also Director of The Methodology Center, an interdisciplinary research center devoted to the advancement and dissemination of quantitative methods for applications in the behavioral sciences. Dr. Collins’s research interests include the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), an engineering-inspired methodological framework for optimizing and evaluating behavioral, biobehavioral, and biomedical interventions. The objective of MOST is to improve intervention effectiveness, efficiency, economy, and scalability. Dr. Collins is currently collaborating on research applying MOST to develop optimized behavioral interventions in the areas of smoking cessation, weight loss, prevention of excessive drinking and risky sex in college students, and HIV services. Her research has been funded by the United States National Institutes of Health continuously for more than 30 years.  Dr. Collins’s publications have appeared in a wide range of outlets, including methodological journals such as Psychological Methods, substance use journals such as Nicotine and Tobacco Research, behavioral journals such as Annals of Behavioral Medicine, and engineering journals such as IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the Society for Prevention Research. She is a past president of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology and the Society for Prevention Research. Dr. Collins has delivered more than 100 invited presentations and workshops on MOST around the world. Dr. Collins is a recipient of a Fulbright Specialist Award 2018 to visit the Health Behaviour Change Research Group at the National University of Ireland, Galway in April – May. During her visit to Ireland, she will deliver a workshop and a lecture on MOST and meet with research teams to explore and develop the application of MOST to their work.  To book a place, please visit our EVENTBRITE page

Friday, 16 February 2018

Designing Effective Interventions for Health Behaviour Change: Follow-Up Primarily designed for participants who have previously attended training in health behaviour change, the follow-up workshop will provide mentoring and support to researchers (including PhD students), practitioners and policy makers currently engaged in the development and evaluation of behaviour change interventions. As part of registration, participants are asked to submit a short 200 word overview of a behaviour change intervention they are currently working on, and any particular barriers or challenges faced. These challenges and potential solutions will be discussed during the workshop. The number of participants will be limited to ten, to facilitate individual guidance from expert workshop facilitators. Workshop Facilitators Dr Molly Byrne, Health Research Board (HRB) Research Leader and Director of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group, School of Psychology, NUI Galway Dr Jenny Mc Sharry, Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Co-Director, Health Behaviour Change Research Group, School of Psychology, NUI Galway, and Registered Health Psychologist with the UK Health and Care Professions Council. Workshop fee: €200 (full fee); €100 (student rate, valid student ID required) To register: Please visit our Eventbrite page HERE For further information on the workshop: Please contact Oonagh Meade at oonagh.meade@nuigalway.ie To be added to our Events email list: Email Valerie Parker at valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie

Monday, 6 November 2017

Designing Effective Interventions for Health Behaviour Change: An Introduction Many interventions which seek to promote health are dependent on effectively changing people’s behaviour – whether this is the behaviour of the public, health professionals or users of health services. Often, our interventions fail, because we do not take account of what is really causing the behaviour or use this in developing our interventions. Behavioural science has made significant advances within the last decade in developing methodologies available to intervention designers. For success, intervention designers should: Use and develop a theoretical understanding of the behaviour they wish to change and target factors which are likely to effect change Describe interventions to facilitate replication (using behaviour change technique taxonomies) and to test the mechanisms of action through which interventions work Aims and ObjectivesIn this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to learn about, and practice using, emerging methods for designing and evaluating behavioural interventions. On completion of the workshop, participants will be able to: Apply a structured approach to using behavioural theory for intervention development Use the COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation – behaviour) model and the Behaviour Change Wheel to design interventions Specify and describe intervention content using Behaviour Change Technique taxonomies Test the theoretical underpinnings of interventions Understand processes of change as part of intervention evaluation Workshop Facilitators Dr Molly Byrne, Health Research Board (HRB) Research Leader and Director of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group at NUI Galway Dr Jenny Mc Sharry, Postdoctoral Researcher and Co-Director, Health Behaviour Change Research Group at NUI Galway, and Registered Health Psychologist with the UK Health and Care Professions Council. Intended ParticipantsThis workshop is for researchers, practitioners, policy makers and students interested in behaviour change. BookingPlaces are limited and book up fast! To avoid disappointment, book now by contacting Valerie Parker at valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie or on 091 494 454. For further assistance, please contact Valerie Parker at valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie or on 091 494 454.

Thursday, 7 September 2017

Process Evaluations of Complex Interventions in Health In association with the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS) and the Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer), the NUI Galway Health Behaviour Change Research Group are delighted to host the DECIPHer one-day workshop on Process Evaluation of Complex Interventions in Health, taking place in the Arts Millennium Building NUI Galway on Thursday 7th September, 10am – 4.30pm. Summary: The aim of this one-day workshop is to provide participants with knowledge and skills of the theory and practice of process evaluations of complex health interventions. The workshop will be of relevance to researchers, policy-makers and practitioners interested in developing and evaluating complex health interventions. The workshop will cover: The role of process evaluation in understanding complex health interventions The importance of intervention theory and logic models The components of process evaluations Identification of process evaluation questions and methods Analysis of process data Workshop facilitators: Dr Graham MooreDr Moore is the Deputy Director of the Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer), Cardiff and a Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences and Health. Dr Moore has an international reputation as a specialist in methodology for evaluating complex interventions, and is lead author of the recent MRC guidance for process evaluation of complex interventions. He is also lead for DECIPHer's complex intervention methods programme. Dr Rhiannon EvansDr Evans is a Senior Lecturer in Social Science and Health based at DECIPHer, a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence and a member of the DECIPHer process evaluation teaching team. She is also an affiliated Senior Lecturer at CASCADE (Children's Social Care Research and Development Centre). She is  lead for DECIPHer's mental health and wellbeing programme. Dr Evans has expertise in process evaluations and implementation science. As places are limited for this FREE event, if you would like to attend please submit no more than 500 words explaining why this course will be of benefit to you. Please include details of previous or planned research in process evaluations of complex interventions and demonstration of financial need etc. Closing date for applications is Friday August 11th at 12pm to be sent to Dr Elaine Toomey at elaine.toomey@nuigalway.ie   This workshop is generously supported by funding through the BITSS Catalyst Program with support from the John Templeton Foundation. Dr Elaine Toomey of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group is a Catalyst for the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences. For more information, please visit www.bitss.org, sign up for the BITSS blog, or follow BITSS on Twitter @UCBITSS For further information, please contact Elaine Toomey, PhD, Health Behaviour Change Research Group, School of Psychology, National University of Ireland, Galway Tel: 00353-91-494458Email: elaine.toomey@nuigalway.ie

Thursday, 4 May 2017

Funding Pathways for Early Career Researchers: an Interdisciplinary Guide ‌ Thursday 4th May, 2017: 10am - 1pmSchool of Psychology, Room G065 We would like to welcome all postgraduate students to a short workshop dedicated to highlighting funding pathways for early career researchers. Following the very successful "Early Career Researcher Session" at the IRC Interdisciplinary Research Workshop for Health in September 2016, we aim to show early career researchers the opportunities that are available to postgraduate students in terms of building a career in academia. In this workshop, we will hear from the NUI Galway Research Office as well as personal experiences from distinguished and established researchers from NUIG. For more details, please see the WEBSITETo register, click HERE. This event is free of charge, and places are limited!For further information, please contact: Bárbara Oliveira, b.oliveira1@nuigalway.ie  

Thursday, 4 May 2017

The Association for the Study of Obesity on the Island of Ireland (ASOI) are delighted to announce our 2017 Annual Conference. This year our focus is on Childhood Obesity and, in collaboration with Health Behaviour Change Research Group at NUI Galway, and University College Cork, we have an expanded program over two days with over 15 keynote speakers from 7 different countries. Full details at http://www.asoi.info/ Day 1 of ASOI 2017 will focus on prevention of childhood obesity, and integral to the day we are holding roundtable discussion workshops as part of a study to identify and prioritise knowledge gaps concerning obesity prevention and knowledge translation. Day 2 of ASOI 2017 will focus on the treatment of paediatric obesity, and we will also have breakout workshops during the day allowing attendees to further tease the topics raised with reference to their area of interest/practice. Abstract Call is now open!! Please see the call for abstracts and programme Register Here:  http://buytickets.at/asoi This conference will be relevant to students, healthcare professionals, educators and researchers involved in the fields of primary care, paediatrics, public health, health policy and implementation science, amongst others. There will be the opportunity to present posters across both days of the conference, with a prize presented on each day to the best poster relevant to the topic of that day. Day 1 of this two-day event is kindly supported by the Irish Research Council New Foundations Scheme through funding awarded to Dr Karen Matvienko-Sikar (UCC) for COS-IF: Core Outcome Set for Infant Feeding, and Ms Marita Hennessy (HBCRG, NUI Galway) for POCKETS: Prevention of Childhood Obesity-Knowledge Exchange and TranSlation. Learn More >

Tuesday, 10 January 2017

Follow-up Clinic: Designing Effective Interventions for Health Behaviour Change Primarily designed for participants who have previously attended training in health behaviour change, the follow-up clinic will provide mentoring and support to researchers (including PhD students), practitioners and policy makers currently engaged in the development and evaluation of behaviour change interventions. Potential participants are asked to submit a short 200 word overview of a behaviour change intervention they are currently working on, and any particular barriers or challenges faced. These challenges and potential solutions will be discussed during the clinic. The number of participants will be limited to ten, to facilitate individual guidance from expert clinic facilitators. Clinic Facilitators Dr Molly Byrne, Health Research Board (HRB) Research Leader and Director of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group, School of Psychology, NUI Galway Dr Jenny Mc Sharry, Postdoctoral Researcher and Co-Director, Health Behaviour Change Research Group, School of Psychology, NUI Galway, and Registered Health Psychologist with the UK Health and Care Professions Council. Workshop fee: €200 (full fee); €100 (student rate, valid student ID required) As places are limited, please complete the Follow-Up Application Form to apply for a place, and return to valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie by 5.00pm on Tuesday 10 January 2017. Participants will be notified on Friday 13 January of the outcome. For queries about the follow-up clinic, please contact Dr Jenny Mc Sharry at jenny.mcsharry@nuigalway.ie

Wednesday, 26 October 2016

One Day Workshop Wednesday 26 October 2016, 10am – 5pmSchool of Psychology, NUI Galway In this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to learn about, and practice using, qualitative synthesis methods. Participants will gain an overview and understanding of different methods involved in conducting a qualitative review. The workshop is for researchers, practitioners, policy makers and students interested in evidence synthesis of qualitative data. Limited Places Available! Cost €100 (€40 students) Details and Registration, visit: www.tinyurl.com/HBCRG16 For further information, please contact Elaine Toomey E: elaine.toomey@nuigalway.ie  T: 091 49 4458 QUESTS Qualitative Research in Trials Centre, Aras Moyola, NUI Galway www.quests.ie Health Behaviour Change Research Group, School of Psychology, NUI Galway www.nuiglaway.ie/psy

Thursday, 23 June 2016

Conference - Strength in Numbers: Teaming up to improve the health of young adults with Type 1 Diabetes Bringing stakeholders in young adult type 1 diabetes management together to share and develop key strategies for improving the health of this group. This innovative, multi-disciplinary one-day conference will be of interest to health services providers, researchers, young adults with type 1 diabetes and policy-makers. Learn more >

HBCRG Semainer Series 2015 - 2019

The aim of our seminars is to support a network of people interested in research in Health Psychology and to provide opportunities for sharing and developing research ideas. The seminars take place once a month usually at lunchtime (1-2pm) in the School of Psychology. Please contact Valerie Parker (valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie) to be added to our Events Mailing List. Everyone is welcome to attend!


Population Health & Health Services Research: Seminar Series 2018/19

This semester, the Health Behaviour Change Research GroupHRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland, and the Health Promotion Research Centre have come together to run a joint seminar series to highlight research in the aera of population health and health services.

HBCRG PHHSR seminars 2019_updated

Details are below on upcoming seminars. Please note the VENUE for each seminar. All are welcome to attend. To join our Events mailing list, please email valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie


HBCRG seminar ALake 14Mar

Development and evaluation of a health behaviour change intervention to reduce risk of vision loss for young adults with type 2 diabetes

Thurs 14th March, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), AM101, School of Psychology, NUI Galway

Dr Amelia J Lake,  Research Fellow, The Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes

Young adults with type 2 diabetes (aged 18-39 years), face increased risk of early onset and rapid progression of diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of vision loss. Retinal screening is essential for the early detection of diabetic retinopathy; yet screening rates for this group are low, leading to calls for development of cohort-specific eye health resources. Using a mixed-methods approach, we conducted a comprehensive needs assessment which demonstrated that although the majority of previous individual-level retinal screening promotion interventions focussed on increasing knowledge and awareness of diabetic retinopathy and retinal screening guidelines, social cognitive factors, such as attitudes and beliefs also play an important role. Our mixed methods studies highlighted salient motivational factors impacting retinal screening behaviour. For example, young adults believed that they were at low risk of diabetic retinopathy, gave retinal screening low priority, and were not engaged with existing services which they viewed as designed for ‘older’ adults. Utilising intervention mapping, cohort-specific determinants were mapped to evidence-based persuasive messaging and incorporated into a print-based leaflet. The leaflet was subject to stakeholder review including with members of the priority population, and continues to be periodically distributed to newly-diagnosed young adults with type 2 diabetes, via existing infrastructure. This program of research was developed and trialled within real-world conditions and illustrates the process involved in maximising engagement and relevance of health behaviour interventions to the target audience. Our experience also highlights the importance of taking a flexible approach to health behavior change intervention development for a ‘hardly-reached’ population.

About the speaker: Dr Amelia J Lake is a Research Fellow at The Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes. Amelia joined the Centre in 2013 to manage the Diabetes and Eye Health Project, a Vision 2020 Australia-funded program to promote retinal screening for those at increased risk of vision loss from diabetic retinopathy. Amelia’s program of PhD research involved the development and evaluation of an evidence-based eye health resource for young adults with type 2 diabetes, one of the key priority populations within the Diabetes and Eye Health project. Amelia’s principle research interests focus on methods to promote translation and uptake of research findings in preventative health, the self-management of chronic conditions and in promoting health behaviour change. Amelia has a special interest in working with consumer and health professional groups to enable translation of evidence-based research into practice.

Bridging the Care Gap: An evaluation of palliative day-care services

Tuesday 16th April, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), G010, Hardiman Research Building, NUI Galway

Palliative day care services provide individual, patient centred and holistic care acting on domains including but not restricted to medical models of care. Daycare is traditionally an under researched area; it can also be difficult to evaluate from the patient perspective. This study adopted a mixed methods approach that used patients and staff input to design and deliver a study that evaluated day care services. Researchers found that Daycare was of great importance to the patients and their families, particular aspects of the service that were seen to be crucial were the socio-medical model, the wide variety of therapeutic services, provision of transport and the social supportive environment.
Principal Investigators: Dr Catherine Anne Field and Dr Geraldine Mc Darby
Collaborators: Galway Hospice, Sora Abdul Fatta (NUIG Student Researcher)

Dr Catherine Anne Field, (BSocSc, MSc, PhD) is lecturer in health promotion in the School of Health Science at the National University of Ireland Galway since 2013. Catherine Anne completed her undergraduate degree in Social Science at University College Dublin (UCD) and a Masters in Health Policy at the London School of Economics (LSE). She initially worked for six years in the area of community based addiction care and mental health in Ireland and the United Kingdom in a clinical and research remit. After which she joined the School of Applied Social Science at UCD where she worked as a Research Assistant and University Teacher.   She was awarded her PhD from UCD in 2013 for her study ' The management of problem alcohol use among patients attending primary care for opiate substitution treatment’. The PhD was part of a Health Research Board funded project, and the findings were used to develop clinical guidelines for the management of problem alcohol use among drug users in in primary care. She was also a co-reviewer and co-author on a Cochrane Systematic Review – “Psychosocial interventions for problem alcohol use among drug users”. Catherine Anne is actively involved in the promotion of compassion, empathy and resilience in healthcare professionals and is a facilitator for the Schwartz Rounds at Galway University Hospital.


Valuing breastfeeding - what do we know, what next?

Monday 1st April, 1.15pm - 2.15pm, G065, School of Psychology, NUI Galway

HBCRG breastfeeding seminar 01 Apr 2019

Seminar overview
In this seminar, Clare will describe recent UK (and US) research on financial incentives for breastfeeding. This will include the MRC funded NOSH project which explored the potential of offering financial incentives/conditional cash transfers for breastfeeding in areas with persistently low breastfeeding rates. The NOSH project developed and tested a scheme in a large public health ‘Vouchers for Breastfeeding’ trial with 10,000 mothers and infants in the north of England. This trial reported a significant increase in area level breastfeeding rates at 6-8 weeks. Clare will describe what was learnt about the social complexities of breastfeeding in the UK in the context of financial incentives to mothers. She will then explore the questions and methods for future research on a range of policy options that could help increase the value (and amount) of breastfeeding in Ireland with attendees.

Biography
Clare originally studied Philosophy then Homeopathic Medicine. She joined the University of Sheffield with a Department of Health Fellowship and obtained her PhD in how to design practical trials of interventions to improve health. Clare led the MRC funded NOSH project which included a large public health ‘Vouchers for Breastfeeding’ trial, and is currently leading FRESH Street project which is feasibility testing the impact of offering vouchers for locally supplied fresh fruit and veg. She is currently a senior lecturer in clinical trials at Queen Mary University of London, specialising in the design and conduct of practical trials of interventions to improve health for individuals and communities. Clare is keen to trial interventions which might bring practical health benefits, especially those which support healthy lifestyles, and empower people and the communities they live in.

All welcome!

Recent seminars

HBCRG MEbell Feb2019

The potential benefits and harms of cancer screening - perspectives from the US Preventive Services Taskforce

Tuesday 26th February, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), G065, School of Psychology, NUI Galway

Lecture by Prof Mark Ebell, University of Georgia, USA
Supported by the HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland 
(a collaboration between NUI Galway, RCSI and the Irish College of General Practitioners)

While there are many kinds of cancer, for only a few is there evidence that the potential benefits of screening outweigh the potential harms. While potential benefits are substantial for a small number of those screened (a death averted), all patients experience some degree of inconvenience, and many are subjected to the harms of biopsies and other follow-up tests. A new kind of harm, increasingly recognized and present with most kinds of cancer screening, is overdiagnosis. As our technology has evolved, we are able to detect smaller and smaller lesions that may appear cancerous, actually do not behave like a cancer. About 1 in 5 persons who have a breast or lung cancer detected by screening would have lived a full life with the cancer never causing any symptoms (“overdiagnosis”). Dr Ebell will discuss the process of the US Preventive Services Task Force for making screening recommendations, how their recommendations compare with those in Ireland, the harms of both underdiagnosis and overdiagnosis, and what we can learn from each other about balancing benefits and harms.

Professor Mark Ebell is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s Medical School, Family Medicine Residency, and School of Public Health. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the College of Public Health at the University of Georgia. Dr Ebell is Editor-in-Chief of Essential Evidence and Deputy Editor of the journal American Family Physician. He is author of over 350 peer-reviewed articles and is author or editor of seven books, with a focus on evidence-based practice, systematic reviews, medical informatics, and clinical decision-making. Dr Ebell served on the US Preventive Services Task Force from 2012 to 2015, and in 2019 will be a Fulbright Scholar at RCSI in Dublin, Ireland.


PHHSR seminars 2018 updated2

Making Healthcare Safer: Building an Evidence Base

Tuesday 25th September, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), AM101, School of Psychology, NUI Galway

‌ ‌Dr Paul O’Connor is a human factors psychologist, Lecturer in Primary Care, and research director of the Irish Centre for Applied Patient Safety and Simulation (ICAPSS). His research is concerned with improving human performance and safety in high risk work environments. He has carried out research in a wide range of high risk industries (e.g. civil aviation, offshore oil production), and the military. Since coming to NUIG he has been carrying out research in healthcare with the aim of improving patient safety and quality of care through addressing the human factors that contribute to poor performance.

Dr Sinéad Lydon is a psychologist and Lecturer in Quality and Patient Safety. She is involved with a number of ongoing projects which share the common aim of identifying factors that contribute to deficient patient safety and medical errors, improving the delivery and efficacy of medical education, and developing strategies and interventions to improve the quality of patient care delivered in healthcare settings.

Health Behaviour Change in France: Ulysses Project Visit

Tuesday 23rd October, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), AM101, School of Psychology, NUI Galway

Note: Both presentation are now availabe online HERE

This seminar will feature presentations from Alice Le Bonniec and Dr Alexandra Dima who are being hosted at NUI Galway by the Health Behaviour Change Research Group. Their visit forms part of an Irish Research Council Health Research Board Ulysses Award awarded to Dr Alexandra Dima and Dr Jenny Mc Sharry to foster new collaborations between Irish and French based researchers.

Alice le Bonniec, Epidaure, Prevention Department of Montpellier Cancer Institute
“What are the psychosocial determinants of participation in colorectal cancer screening? GPs’ and patients’ point of view”

Alice will present her thesis which aimed to study the psychosocial determinants of colorectal cancer screening participation. She will first introduce the topic of colorectal cancer screening in France and in Europe, and then she will present the three studies she performed for her doctoral work: one qualitative study conducted with general practitioners and two studies (qualitative and quantitative) with participants from the general population. Finally, the interest of crossing different theories and several methodologies in order to get a more complete perspective of colorectal cancer participation will be discussed (triangulation approach).

Alice Le Bonniec is a social psychologist and a PhD student in social and health psychology at the Epidaure, Prevention Department of Montpellier Cancer Institute. Alice completed a professional Masters degree at University Lyon 2 in 2013 (Lyon, France), and a research Masters degree at Paul Valery University in 2014 (Montpellier, France). She conducts research in the area of health behaviour and her PhD project explores psychosocial determinants of participation in colorectal cancer screening.

 Dr Alexandra Dima
“CoSMaS: developing a framework for collaborative self-management support in chronic conditions”

Managing chronic conditions is team work. Whether patients achieve and maintain good health and quality of life despite their condition depends not only on their interactions with a single healthcare professional. It is rather the global outcome of many interactions, and of how well these are coordinated to ensure comprehensive and efficient care. We have plenty of theories to guide health behavior change at an individual level, yet collaborative care is rarely the focus of theoretical models and rarely considered in the assessment of routine care or in intervention programmes. CoSMaS aims to address this gap by performing a systematic review of theories of collaborative self-management support from multiple disciplines, and a qualitative study of collaborative practices in routine care in France. I will present preliminary results of these two studies and discuss how collaborative care can be conceptualized in health services research from a behavioral and communication perspective. 

Dr Alexandra Dima is Postdoctoral Researcher in Health Psychology, currently Marie Curie Fellow in the HESPER laboratory (Health Services and Performance Research), Claude Bernard University Lyon 1.  Her main research focus is improving management of chronic conditions via collaborative care and patient empowerment. More specifically, she studies how people adjust psychologically to chronic conditions (e.g., chronic pain, HIV/AIDS, low back pain, asthma), how they manage their condition for example by taking medication or using healthcare services, how their health care providers support them in managing their health, and ultimately how self-management support services can be improved to produce sustainable changes in patients’ health and quality of life. She has performed research on diverse topics such as medication adherence, health care delivery, treatment beliefs, emotion regulation, health status disclosure, health literacy. She has a special interest in open science and methodology (e.g. psychometrics, use of electronic healthcare data in behavioral research, hierarchical longitudinal modeling).

Ill Treatment in the Irish Workplace - Findings from the Irish Workplace Behaviour Study

Tuesday 20th November, 1.00pm - 2.00pm, (light lunch 12.30pm), AM101, School of Psychology, NUI Galway

Dr Margaret Hodgins is a member of the Discipline of Health Promotion and  a principal investigator with the Health Promotion Research Centre. Her current research projects include the 'Irish Workplace Behaviour Study' a national study on workplace bullying, violence and incivility, and a study entitled 'Organisational Response to Workplace Bullying and Incivility in the University setting'. She is co-editor of a text book on Health Promotions Settings with Dr. Angela Scriven from Brunel University, and has recently co-authored a text on Workplace Health Promotion with Professor Paul Fleming (University of Southhampton) and Mr John Griffith (Work2Health, Cardiff).


HBCRG seminars 2018 updated

To join our Events mailing list, please email valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie

HBCRG seminar May 2018

Promoting physical activity in long-term conditions – rheumatoid arthritis

Short summary: Physical activity is a core part in the management of long-term conditions. Long-term conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis make being physically active challenging. This talk will outline the development of an intervention to promote physical activity in people who have rheumatoid arthritis and explore the factors physical activity promotion in long-term conditions.

Bio: Dr. Louise Larkin graduated from the University of Limerick in 2011 with a BSc in Physiotherapy (hons). Louise has completed her MSc (Research and Thesis) and PhD at the University of Limerick in the area of physical activity and behaviour change in inflammatory arthritis. Louise's primary research interests are in the fields of physical activity and behaviour change in the primary care setting. Louise has clinical experience in both the public and private sectors in Ireland, having worked in the areas of musculoskeletal, neurology, rheumatology and gerontology. Louise's current roles at the University of Limerick are Physiotherapy Practice Tutor in Galway Primary, Community and Continuing Care (part-time) and also Lecturer below the bar in Physiotherapy (part-time). Louise is a current member of the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists and the Irish Rheumatology Health Professionals Society.


HBCRG seminar HDelaney Apr2018

Walking and cycling journeys on shared-use paths; the user perspective

The slides from Hannah's presentation are availabe here: Presentation slides

Summary: This seminar presents the findings from a mixed methods study involving video ethnographies, in-depth interviews and on-site surveys. Cyclists’ and pedestrians’ journey experiences on shared-use paths are explored through; the individual journey, the shared journey and the path environment. The importance of the embodied and sensory experiences related to walking and cycling is firstly considered. The types of interactions that take place between cyclists and pedestrians on shared-use paths, and the negotiation strategies employed to effectively share space, are then discussed. Finally, path users’ perceptions and expectations of shared-use paths are outlined.

Bio: Dr Hannah Delaney is a Senior Researcher on the Health Policy team at the Scottish Centre for Social Research, in Edinburgh (ScotCen). Hannah is from Galway and completed her BA at NUI Galway in 2008. She qualified from King’s College London with an MSc in ‘Cities Culture and Social Change’ in 2010, where she developed an interest in healthy cities and active travel. Hannah took a research position with the sustainable transport charity, Sustrans, in 2011; working on a national study promoting active travel to school (BikeIt). Hannah obtained her PhD from the Centre for Transport and Society at the University of the West of England in 2016. Her PhD research explored ‘Walking and Cycling Interactions on Shared-Use Paths,’ through in-depth interviews, video ethnographies and on-site surveys. Since joining the Health Policy team at ScotCen Hannah manages a variety of research projects, extending her interests to: health behaviours, tobacco control, life course research, user-centred research.


‌‌HBCRG seminar PCarroll Mar2018

Men on the Move Presentation  (Click here for the presentation with embedded voice recording).  Note: To watch the presentation and listen to the podcast, please open in PowerPoint and watch the presentation as a slideshow, with your speakers turned on.

Paula has recently published a protoal paper on her research in the Journal of Physical Activity Research. Click here to download.

Summary: This seminar will detail the journey from an ‘idea’ to a national efficacy and replicability trial of Men on the Move, a community based PA programme for inactive men. Both the process of designing, developing and implementing the programme across 8 counties, engaging over 900 men will be detailed along with the outcome biopsychosocial measures recorded up to 52 weeks. Qualitative data from participant interviews will also be presented to illuminate the personal impact of participation on the men’s overall health and well-being. Finally, the potential trajectory for Men on the Move to national scale up will be presented.

Bio: Dr Paula Carrolls’ primary research interest is action based health promotion. She is currently the PI for the national Men on the Move study; a 12-month study that investigated the delivery process and the impact of a community-based health promotion programme for inactive men in Ireland (n=906 across 8 counties). She also has considerable experience of cross-sectoral collaboration regarding health policy, training and research both nationally and internationally; she is co-author of the worlds’ first National Men’s Health Policy (2008) and the subsequent National Men’s Health Action Plan (2016); she co-authored the worlds’ only national men’s health training programme, ENGAGE that is funded by the HSE; from 2012-2016, as a lead facilitator, she trained 74 ENGAGE trainers via a Training of Trainers (ToT) model who delivered a 1-day ENGAGE training programme to over 1200 front line service providers; she has worked with the HSE and National Youth Council of Ireland to develop and deliver Facilitation Skills training to health promotion staff and youth sector workers nationally; she is a co-applicant on a weight loss intervention study, lead by staff at Stirling University that is investigating text based narratives to promote weight loss among men; and she was an advisor to a) a systematic review of male weight loss and obesity that was led by staff at the University of Aberdeen and b) a review of men’s food the health behaviour (Safefood Ireland). Married with three young children and living on a dairy farm in Kildare, she endeavours to practice her health promotion ethos in her life so that she can support others (individuals and systems) to make healthy choices for the better of themselves and the whole of society.

Details on Dr Hannah Delaney's and Dr Louise Larkin's seminars to follow shortly. To join our Events mailing list, please email valerie.parker@nuigalway.ie


Seminar series 2018

HBCRG seminar KDowd Feb2018

Presentation Title: The Why, What and How of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Measurement

Kieran Dowd Seminar Presentation Feb 2018 - PDF flie (click link to download)

Kieran Dowd Seminar Presentation Feb 2018 - Audio Recording (click link to listen via SoundCloud)

Summary: It is widely accepted that regular participation in physical activity is beneficial for health, while we are gaining a better understanding of the effects of increased time spent in sedentary behaviours on chronic disease risk factors. However, little is known of the effect of other free-living activity behaviours, such as standing time or physical activity which requires low levels of energy expenditure, on health markers. To date, we have also struggled to modify such activity behaviours via interventions in any meaningful way at a population level. This has been attributed to issues with the identification of determinants of physical activity and sedentary behaviour. 

It has been proposed that the measurement of such ubiquitous free-living behaviours has been a significant limitation in i) accurately determining the effect of free-living activity behaviours on health, ii) identifying the determinants of free-living activity behaviours and iii) determining the effectiveness of interventions to modify free-living activity behaviours. This presentation aims to describe why it is important to address these specific issues, some additional physical activity behaviours that may be worthwhile examining and provides some recommendations on how such behaviours should be examined.

Short Bio: Dr Kieran Dowd qualified from the University of Limerick in 2007 with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Physical Education teaching. In 2012, he obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Limerick. His Ph.D. research focused on developing accurate and effective methods of examining physical activity and sedentary behaviours using accelerometry. This research also aimed to examined associations between such activity behaviours and indices of health in youth populations. 
Kieran’s post-doctoral research was part of the Determinants of Diet and Physical Activity Knowledge Hub (DEDIPAC KH). Kieran’s primary role within this project was to critically evaluate the state of the art techniques for physical activity and sedentary behaviour measurement. 
Kieran currently lectures on the new B.Sc. (Honours) in Physical Activity and Health in Athlone Institute of Technology. Kieran continues to collaborate and consult on projects in relation to measurement across Europe.

Seminar series 2017

HBCRG_KWalsh_seminar_Dec2017

Biography: Kieran is a 4th year SPHeRE (Structured Population and Health Services Research Education) PhD Scholar based in University College Cork. Kieran is also a practising community pharmacist. His PhD is focusing on optimising the prescribing of antipsychotics to people with dementia in long term care settings. More broadly, he is interested in dementia research, mixed-methods research, public and patient involvement, healthcare professional behaviour change and implementation science. He has published several articles in journals such as Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, Age and Ageing and International Psychogeriatrics, and has recently been a co-author on a New England Journal of Medicine publication. He has presented his findings at national and international conferences.

About the presentation:  The title of Kieran’s thesis is Rationalising Antipsychotic Prescribing in Dementia: A Mixed Methods Investigation. The overall aim of his thesis is to assess the feasibility of a theoretically-informed, evidence-based intervention to rationalise antipsychotic prescribing in nursing home residents with dementia. The upcoming seminar will describe Kieran’s research to-date, and how he utilised the Behaviour Change Wheel to develop a complex intervention, the RAPID study (Rationalising Antipsychotic Prescribing in Dementia). He will update us on the progress of this mixed-methods feasibility study as well outlining future policy and practice implications stemming from his research.


HBCRG seminar MByrne Nov2017

Bio: Dr Mitch Byrne is a practicing Clinical Psychologist and Forensic Psychologist. He is also a full time academic at the University of Wollongong in NSW, Australia. His applied experience includes disability, early childhood services, adult mental health (including 3 years at the Bassetlaw NHS Trust in Worksop, North Nottinghamshire as Consultant Clinical Psychologist), prisons and probation services, and ongoing private practice. His research interests are varied, including medication adherence, PTSD, omega-3 and behaviour, family law, psychopathy, violence, and Autism Spectrum Disorders. Mitch has been researching adherence issues since 2002 and completed his PhD on Medication Adherence in 2008, receiving the Australian Psychological Society’s annual national “Best PhD” award. He is passionate about translational research and the education of post graduate psychologists and has been Director of Clinical Training at the University of Wollongong.

Presentation synopsis: Medication Adherence is a controversial concept, particularly in psychiatry, where the contemporary philosophical ethos is patient self-determination and the process of recovery. None-the-less, medications play a pivotal role in health care and patient decisions not to use medications as prescribed can have significant effects on the patient, their families and the health care system. Many factors influence a person’s ability or choice to engage in pharmaceutical treatments and it is the responsibility of the health care provider to understand the reasons why patient’s may or may not adhere, and how to work with them for the best health outcomes. This presentation outlines a decade and a half of research into the Medication Alliance model, addressing both inpatient and outpatient factors in mental health, the role of carers, and the extension of adherence concepts to other chronic health conditions. The emerging area of comorbid health issues for those on psychotropic medications, such as diabetes, will also be discussed.

Mitch's presentation is available HERE: Medication Adherence presentation Dr Mitch Byrne


HBCRG seminar Oct 2017

Drs Molly Byrne, Jenny Mc Sharry and Elaine Toomey of the Health Behaviour Change Research Group all spent time in Canada during summer 2017, and will discuss their experiences at our upcoming HBCRG seminar. Molly received the James M. Flaherty visiting professorship award for a 10-week research visit, during which time she visited three Canadian centres: the Montreal Behavioural Medicine Centre, the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the Behaviour Change Institute, Capital Health Nova Scotia. At the Montreal Behavioural Medicine Centre, she worked with Drs Simon Bacon and Kim Lavoie of the International Behavioural Trials Network. At the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the Behaviour Change Institute in Nova Scotia, she collaborated to build international research in the emerging areas of Implementation Science and health promotion interventions for young adults with Type 1 diabetes. Both Jenny and Elaine presented at the Global Implementation Conference in Toronto, while Elaine completed a 6-week research placement at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and also presented at Knowledge Translation Canada in Quebec.


HBCRG seminar POS Sept 2017

Title: Dog-bite fatalities and breed-specific legislation: Putting the evidence back into evidence-based policy

About the presentation: This seminar will focus on Dr. Ó Súilleabháin’s ongoing work from conducting research in human-animal interaction to engaging with government officials, including policy makers. This seminar will outline the scientific research on factors in dog-bite fatalities, and the assertion pertaining to the relevance of a dog’s breed within this context. The juxtaposition of these findings with public opinion, and resulting political narratives will also be discussed. In doing so, Dr. Ó Súilleabháin will outline the challenges he believes face implementing evidence-based policy, and potential strategies in their navigation. Strategies in the greeting or avoidance of dogs will also be provided!

Bio: Páraic is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the area of personality and stress psychophysiology at the School of Psychology, the National University of Ireland, Galway. His secondary research interest is in the area of human-animal interaction, which is the focus of this seminar. More specifically, Páraic conducts research in dog-bite risk factors, and resulting public policy. His work has gained considerable attention from both national, and international news media. Within this area, he has also been interviewed for several documentaries, and disseminated research within the context of law reform and policy formation within several countries. He has also provided research evidence at court proceedings. His work in this area has also been recognised by the Mayor of Galway City, with a Gradaim an Mhéara award for public engagement in the dissemination of peer-reviewed research with public policy implications in both national, and wider international communities.

Dr. Páraic Ó Súilleabháin, School of Psychology, National University of Ireland, Galway.

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HBCRG PhD May2017

 PhD scholars within the HBCRG will present for our last seminar of the semester. 

  •  Milou Fredrix, HRB scholar, will present on 'Exploring the implementation and effectiveness of goal-setting techniques in diabetes self-management interventions'
  • Caragh Flannery, HRB SPHeRE scholar, will present on 'Exploring the feasibility and potential effectiveness of a technology supported behaviour change intervention for physical activity during pregnancy'
  • Marita Hennessy, HRB SPHeRE scholar, will present on 'Informing the development of early-life interventions delivered by health professionals to prevent childhood obesity'

HBCRG ET seminar Mar2017

Title: Research transparency and the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS)

Summary: Dr Toomey was awarded a Leamer-Rosenthal prize for open social science from the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS) in December 2016. This seminar is on research transparency and the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS). The talk will focus on the importance of research transparency and the background to the development of BITS including their aims, ethos and ongoing work. It will also highlight areas of particular relevance and interest such as BITSS resources, training events and sources of funding and awards. Finally, a brief summary of the 2016 BITSS annual meeting will be provided and potential avenues for collaboration and training in NUIG explored.

Bio: Elaine is a HRB Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement (ICE) post-doctoral research fellow. She is currently involved in the development of a complex intervention to enhance infant feeding practices with a goal of improving childhood obesity outcomes. Her PhD in University College Dublin focused on using mixed methods to evaluate implementation fidelity within behaviour change interventions to promote self-management in people with chronic low back pain and/or osteoarthritis, while her MSc from the University of Limerick explored clinical interventions for non-ambulatory people with Multiple Sclerosis. She also works clinically part-time in a physiotherapy practice. Her research interests include clinical trials, mixed methods, implementation science, behaviour change and narrowing the gap between research and practice, in both physiotherapy and broader public health fields. 


HBCRG DK seminar

Dominika's presentation slides are availble at this link: DKwasnicka Novel Research Methods

Bio: Dominika is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Health Psychology and Behavioural Medicine Research Group, Curtin University, Perth, Australia and is also affiliated with the Physical Activity Research Group, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Australia. Her research interests focus broadly on maintenance of behaviour change in public health. Her main interests are motives for behaviour maintenance, habits, self-regulation, and coping with behavioural barriers. She is interested in exploring how environment and social networks influence behaviour and how availability of physical and psychological resources shapes how people change and maintain health behaviours. Dominika received a prestigious Herman Schaalma Award for her PhD research that she will present during the upcoming seminar. 

About the presentation: Changing health behaviours is not easy, and maintaining them long term can be also very challenging. Consider keeping your weight off once you lost it, or maintaining your exercise habits once you have started training.The upcoming presentation will focus on health behaviour change maintenance, with a particular focus on weight. It will include a description of three recent studies employing multi-method approach to explore behaviour maintenance. First, a systematic review of behavioural theories to identify theoretical explanations for behaviour maintenance. Second , a N-of-1 study which employing ecologic momentary assessment, wireless body scales, and activity monitors to measure theoretical predictors of maintained behaviour in previously obese people who had lost weight. Third, a data-prompted longitudinal study with individuals who participated in the N-of-1 study to explore their experiences of behaviour maintenance, prompted by personal data including summaries of N-of-1 data, pictures, notes and graphs. The presentation will include discussion of main theoretical themes underpinning behaviour maintenance: motives, self-regulation, habits, psychological resources, and environmental and social influences.


HBCRG Seminar Series Autumn 2016

HBCRG Seminar Nov16
 
 
 
HBCRG Seminar Oct16
 
 
 
HBCRG seminar Sept 2016
 
 

HBCRG Seminar Series Spring / Summer 2016

HBCRG seminar July2016
 
 
 
HBCRG seminar GMadden 13June
 
 
 
HBCRG seminar 02June2016
 
 
 
HBCRG seminar May2016
 
 
 

HBCRG seminar 14Apr16

 

HBCRG seminar March16

 

HBCRG Seminar 11Feb16 edit


HBCRG Seminar Series Autumn 2015