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Dr Lorna Sweeney

Research Fellow

Institute for Health and Human Development

  • University House, UH250, Stratford Campus
    Institute for Health and Human Development
    University of East London
    Stratford Campus
    London
    E12 4LZ
  • l.sweeney@uel.ac.uk +442082234797


    Lorna joined the UEL Institute for Health and Human Development in 2014, as a Research Fellow on the REACH Pregnancy Programme, an NIHR-funded programme grant that is evaluating interventions to improve women's access and experience of antenatal care. The grant is in partnership with Barts Health NHS Trust and includes two large multi-site randomised controlled trials. Lorna is also a Co-Investigator with the Barts Research Centre for Women’s Health at Queen Mary University of London. Lorna’s background is in social science and public health research, and she is particularly interested in the application of qualitative research methods within randomised controlled trials of health and social care interventions.

    Overview

     


    - Community REACH: A cluster randomised controlled trial of a community-level intervention to increase early initiation of antenatal care in pregnancy (part of the REACH Pregnancy Programme)

    - Pregnancy Circles: An individual randomised controlled trial of group antenatal care (part of the REACH Pregnancy Programme)

    - EMmY: A randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind pilot trial of the effectiveness and acceptability of myo-inositol nutritional supplement in the prevention of gestational diabetes

    - OMAHA: A randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind pilot trial of the effectiveness and acceptability of metformin in preventing onset of type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes in postnatal women

    - ACROBAT: A pilot cluster randomised trial of the effect of early cryoprecipitate transfusion versus standard care in women who develop severe postpartum haemorrhage


    Collaborators

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    Research

    Amaefule CE, Drymoussi Z, Dodds J, Sweeney L, Pizzo E, Daru J et al. (2018) Effectiveness and acceptability of myo-inositol nutritional supplement in the prevention of gestational diabetes (EMmY): a protocol for a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind pilot trial. BMJ Open, 8(9)

    Sawtell M, Sweeney L, Wiggins M, Salisbury C, Eldridge S, Greenberg L, et al. (2018) Evaluation of community-level interventions to increase early initiation of antenatal care in pregnancy: protocol for the Community REACH study, a cluster randomised controlled trial with integrated process and economic evaluations. Trials, 19

    Hatherall B, Morris J, Jamal F, Sweeney L, Wiggins M, Kaur I, et al. (2016) Timing of the initiation of antenatal care: An exploratory qualitative study of women and service providers in East London. Midwifery, 36: 1-7

    Sweeney, L., Owiti, J.A., Beharry, A., Bhui, K., Gomes, J., Foster, G.R. & Greenhalgh, T. (2015) Informing the design of a national screening and treatment programme for chronic viral hepatitis in primary care: Qualitative study of at-risk immigrant communities and healthcare professionals. BMC Health Services Research, 15: 97.

    Owiti, J.A., Greenhalgh, T., Sweeney, L., Foster, G.R. & Bhui, K. (2015) Illness perceptions and explanatory models of viral hepatitis B & C among immigrants and refugees: a narrative systematic review. BMC Public Health, 15: 151.

    Sweeney, L., Owens, C., Malone, K. (2015) Communication and interpretation of emotional distress within the friendships of young Irish men prior to suicide: a qualitative study. Health & Social Care in the Community, 23(2): 150–158.

    Sweeney, L., Quinlivan, L., McGuinness, S., Carey O'Loughlin, E., Delaney, L. & Malone, K.M. (2009) Is there a role for suicide research in Ireland? Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 26(3): 104-106.

    Publications


    Funding



    Interests

    Portfolio

    PhD students:

    • Cathy Salisbury (full-time at University of East London): Using co-production in interventions to reduce health inequalities: a qualitative study of process and impact. Viva 2019.

    • Chiamaka Esther Amaefule (full-time at Queen Mary University of London): Evaluating health technologies in the prevention and diagnosis of gestational diabetes and progression to Type 2 diabetes; evidence syntheses, pilot and feasibility studies with nested qualitative evaluation


    Current and previous supervision of postgraduate students within the School of Health, Sport and Bioscience- MSc (Public Health); PhD

    Teaching