Clinical Research Directory

Lifestyle Advice in CVD

Individuals living in the UK who are from ethnic minority communities have a higher risk of heart disease and strokes than white individuals. This risk arises from the social determinants of health. These include lifestyle factors such as diet, physical activity and smoking. Improving these lifestyle factors in individuals is an essential part of reducing the chances of heart attacks and stroke. Patients may have diets and lifestyles arising from their cultural and religious backgrounds but receive advice which is not aligned to their own customs and experiences. Receiving advice which is not relevant to their own types of diet and lifestyle customs may create difficulties for patients in managing their heart and circulation health. Moreover, the dissonance between advice given and patient-specific relevance may lead to poorer adherence to the recommendations made to manage their condition. This can lead to poorer health outcomes for these patients. In addition, they may be advised to adopt diets and behaviours which are not appropriate to their cultures and may be also difficult to put into practice. This is important because lifestyle advice aligned to a patient's existing diet, behaviours and cultural beliefs leads to improved control of these health conditions. Learning to provide dietary and lifestyle advice relevant to individual patients needs is an important skill for the clinicians caring for them.

Disparities In Access to the Northwest Ambulance Service During Pregnancy, Birth and Postpartum Period and Its Association With Neonatal and Maternal Outcomes

This study is the first in the United Kingdom (UK) to look at how women and families from different backgrounds use ambulance services during the 'perinatal period' - through pregnancy, birth, and shortly after having a baby. The researchers want to understand whether all women have the same access to urgent and emergency maternity care, and whether there are differences in health outcomes for mothers and babies who use ambulance services. The study has two parts (called Work-Packages): Work Package One will look at data from women who were taken by ambulance to a Manchester University National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust (MFT) maternity unit during the perinatal period, compared with those who had a baby at MFT but were not taken there by ambulance. It will look at the differences between the two groups and their health outcomes. Work Package Two will look closely at the text written by paramedics within ambulance records for some women from Work Package One, especially those at increased risk of a poor outcome. The researchers will study what happened during their care journey and look for anything that happens repeatedly within the text to better understand their experiences. By combining the results from both work packages, the study aims to give a detailed picture of how different women access emergency maternity care and outcomes for themselves and their babies. This will help identify ways to improve services, especially for women who may face barriers to getting the care they need, helping to make sure that maternity care is safe, fair, and more effective for everyone.