We are absolutely delighted to announce that we recently received a grant from Soca Girls Rock! (SGR!) to support our new fibroids research project.

At the time of writing, we were just about to submit our application to the Ministry of Health’s Interim Ethics Review Committee for ethics approval and once that is granted our project will begin.

Our new project is a qualitative research study that will explore the experiences of women living in St Kitts and Nevis who have been affected by fibroids. This work aims to provide an in-depth exploration of women’s experiences and help us identify any psychosocial, personal, institutional and physical challenges that women with fibroids may experience that may impact their health and wellbeing. By exploring these issues, we can develop an understanding of how fibroids may affect a woman’s quality of life and this will enable us to begin to focus on strategies to support women who have been affected by fibroids.

To our knowledge, there has been no research conducted in St Kitts and Nevis to understand the experiences of women living with fibroids. Therefore, this study will make a significant contribution to filling an information gap in women’s health.

We would like to say a big thank you to Soca Girls Rock! for supporting this project and for continuing to support women-led, Caribbean-based initiatives.

When asked about the importance of providing funds to women-led organisations to support research projects like this, SGR! stated:

“The challenges of womanhood can and should be addressed by women.”

We are also grateful to SGR! for providing us with access to the technical expertise to conduct this research project by facilitating a collaboration with Dr Fanta Waterman (MPH, PhD), the Managing Director of Serrette Brown Research and Consulting.  We are very much looking forward to working with Dr Waterman and appreciate all the useful insight and advice that she has already provided.

About Soca Girls Rock!

Soca Girls Rock! aims to address the unique set of social and economic challenges that the Caribbean faces. These challenges include access to quality education and health care, high unemployment rates for youth and women, high poverty and crime rates, and income inequality. SGR! tackles these issues through its unique and innovative approach to leadership, activism, and civic engagement. They harness the collective time, talent, and treasure of self-identified Caribbean women, living in and outside of the Region, to provide technical and financial assistance to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) committed to social change.

 About Serrette Brown Research and Consulting

Serrette Brown Research and Consulting (SBRC) is a boutique research consulting practice specializing in epidemiology, population health research, program evaluation, evidence gap analyses, digital health and publications development strategy.

They partner with non-profits, non-government organizations (NGO), biopharmaceutical companies, health services research organizations and policy implementation agencies based in the United States, Europe and the Caribbean. SBRC staff have been the recipient of research awards and featured on national television.

More Information

If you have any questions about this project or would like any further information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us by email research@lakehealthandwellbeing.com

Wednesday 25th July, 2018

Today we discuss a recent conference that we attended, the 63rd annual CARPHA Health Research Conference which was held right here is S Kitts.

We love attending health conferences. They’re a great opportunity to discover the latest advances in the field, learn something new and meet interesting people. Since moving to St Kitts about 10 months ago we haven’t had the opportunity to attend any conferences and so when we learnt that the 63^rd Annual CARPHA Health Research Conference was going to be held right here in St Kitts, we jumped at the opportunity and registered immediately and started counting down the days until conference day.  In today’s blog we’re going to share some of the highlights of the conference from our point of view, but first, you may be asking: who or what is CARPHA?

CARPHA – Who Are They?

CARPHA stands for the Caribbean Public Health Agency and they are the only regional public health agency in the Caribbean. They provide strategic direction  in analysing, defining and responding to the public health priorities set out by CARICOM in order to prevent disease, promote health and respond to threats to the public’s health and emergencies. Their programme of work falls in the following categories

• Emergency responses to disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes, flooding),
• The surveillance and management of non-communicable diseases (NDCs) that have reached epidemic proportions such as obesity, cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
• The surveillance and management of communicable diseases (CDs), including HIV / AIDS; re-emerging diseases, like tuberculosis in association with HIV/AIDS; and new communicable diseases that are now endemic in the region
• The surveillance and prevention of injuries, violence and job-related illnesses.
• Contribution to global health agreements and compliance with international health regulations

CARPHA Conference

Every year CARPHA hosts their health research conference which provides Caribbean researchers, at every level, with the opportunity to showcase their work and disseminate their research findings.  This provides the perfect environment to determine how cutting-edge research can contribute to the development of effective evidence-based policies, programmes and practices to tackle the Caribbean’s health challenges.

This year’s conference was the 63^rd conference, making this event the longest running health research conference in the English-speaking Caribbean and it brought together policymakers, researchers, health professionals and public health officials from the Caribbean, Latin America, North America and Europe.

The theme for this year’s conference was ‘Sustainable Health Systems for Economic Growth, Development and Wealth.’ The aim of the conference was to provide an opportunity to raise awareness of Caribbean research that can provide the evidence and information to create stronger health systems in the region.

The conference was a three-day event, packed full of presentations, concurrent sessions, panel discussions, feature lectures, poster presentations and an exhibition, giving attendees an engaging, informative and diverse experience.

Our Conference Highlights

The conference on a whole was excellent, there was something for everyone, but for us certain presentations and pieces of work, really stood out for us. These included:

Assessing the impact of the Barbados Sugar Sweetened Beverage (SSB) Tax on Grocery Store Beverage Sales – with many countries  around the globe introducing a sugar tax it was interesting to hear about the experience in the Caribbean. This presentation summarised the findings, so far, from the introduction of a 10% tax on SSBs in Barbados in August 2015. It was promising to hear that following the tax there was an increase in water purchases, a 4.3% reduction in SSB purchases and a 5.2% increase in the purchase of non-sweetened drinks. It was interesting to note that the decline in SSB purchases was in expensive drinks and there was evidence that consumers were switching to cheaper SSBs.

Diabetes Distress and Diabetes Self-Care in Barbados – this presentation was insightful as we had never come across the term diabetes distress, which refers to the emotional impact of diabetes where patients may experience fear, frustration and guilt. It was interesting learning about this and how promoting self-care and self-management may address this issue.

Obesity and Weight Misperception Among Adults in Eastern Caribbean– this was a very well-presented and engaging talk that explored the extent to which people misunderstand their weight. Researchers found that in their study weight misperception was very common with the majority of people  under estimating their actual weight. This is a problem because it means that people who are overweight or obese don’t realise it, and if people don’t realise they have a problem with their weight they won’t take steps to address this. This leads to people remaining at risk of a number of health issues when they needn’t be. You can find out more about this study here.

Our Voices: Women’s Perspectives on Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening and Treatment in the English-speaking Windward Islands – this presentation really struck a chord with us as we conducted a similar piece of work exploring black British women’s beliefs about breast cancer and their help seeking behaviour. It was interesting to hear that their findings were very similar to what we found around fear, fatalism and stigma

Finally other highlights for us were, being new to the Caribbean, it was just wonderful meeting people, exploring the important health issues in the Caribbean (e.g. NCDs and mosquito borne diseases) and learning about interesting projects like ECHORN, the new Caribbean Cancer Registry Hub and The Seth Fund, as well as innovative methods of care like that being delivered by the Caribbean Cancer Centre Network – a partnered care hub and spoke model.

In Conclusion…

This was three days well-spent and a great introduction into the research being conducted in the Caribbean. We highly recommend this conference to anyone in the Public Health field and we look forward to next year’s conference. Every year the conference is hosted on a different Caribbean island, and we’re also looking forward to the announcement of which of the beautiful islands will host the conference next year.

More Information

To find out more about this year’s conference you can visit the conference website here and you can learn more about CARPHA here

Kantar Health is a market research agency that specialises in pharmaceutical research, they regularly speak to physicians, patients and carers and have a wealth of experience in conducting healthcare research.  They work on behalf of pharmaceutical companies to speak to and understand how various health issues impact people’s live. On this occasion, Kantar Health would like to talk to patients who have been diagnosed with ALK+ Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC), and are undergoing treatment.

The research will be individual in-depth interviews that will take approximately 1 hour and will be conducted either via a secure video link (like Skype or FaceTime), or in your home if you feel comfortable doing so. As part of the research the company will also be asking participants to complete a diary or task for 10-15 minutes per day, for 5 days prior to the interview.

The aim of this research is to better understand patient journeys, when, where and with whom they interact before and after their diagnosis, and identify support they may have and / or need.

 All information that is shared as part of the interview will be kept strictly confidential and there will be no attempt to sell you anything. Your decision to participate, or not, will not influence any current or future treatment decisions.

Kantar Health’s interviews are carried out in accordance with current (European: MRS, EphMRA, ESOMAR, BHBIA) guidelines and Data Protection Laws as well as with local UK specific rules.

As an appreciation of your time participants will receive an amount of £200 in your choice of bank transfer or cheque.

If you are interested in taking part, please contact Megan Grendon from Gillian Kenny Associates on 01242 240 842 or MeganGrendon@gilliankenny.com

Gillian Kenny Associates is the medical market research agency that Kantar Health is using to recruit individuals  to see if you are eligible for the study.

The world’s first lupus prevention study, the SMILE clinical trial, was launched recently in the US.

SMILE will identify people who are at a high risk of developing lupus and treat them with an immune-modifying drug to determine whether this will prevent or delay lupus developing.

The drug being used for this study is hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug. As well as exploring whether this drug delays or prevents lupus, the research team will determine if it improves disease activity and patient outcomes.

The trial will include people aged between 15 and 45 who are at high risk of developing lupus. They will be treated with either a placebo or hydroxychloroquine and then monitored for a period of time.

This study is taking place across five sites across the US – Penn State Hershey Medical Centre, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre and the Medical University of South Carolina. Researchers aim to recruit 240 patients and the trial is likely to be completed in 2022.

This is an important study for the black community as black women are three to four times more likely to develop lupus than their white counterparts. Additionally black women  develop lupus at a younger age, experience more severe symptoms and overall develop more complications. Having a treatment that prevents lupus will significantly reduce the suffering of many black women worldwide and we thus look forward to the trial’s conclusions in a few years’ time.

For more information about the trial you can download the SMILE brochure below or email Virginia-Roberts@omrf.org

In September, the World Cancer Research Fund published the latest data from their Continuous Update Project on cancer prevention highlighting what increases and decreases our risk of developing cancer.

Their summary is a very concise, easy-to-read booklet based on the latest evidence on risk factors for cancer. One of their main messages is that one third of the most common cancers could be prevented by a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight and being physically active.

Their summary is divided into three sections:

• Strong evidence on what increases cancer risk
• Strong evidence on what decreases cancer risk
• Cancer prevention recommendations

When looking at what increases cancer risk, factors such as being overweight or obese, consuming alcohol, processed meat and red meat are listed as well as a number of other factors. Whilst non-starchy vegetables, fruit,  physical activity, dietary fibre, wholegrain and a number of other factors are listed as reducing cancer risk.

The WCRF end their summary with a list of cancer prevention recommendations as follows:

• Be a healthy weight
• Move more
• Avoid high calorie foods and sugary drinks
• Enjoy more grains, veg and beans
• Limit red meat and processed meat
• Don’t drink alcohol
• Eat less salt
• Avoid mouldy grains and cereals
• Don’t rely on supplements, eat a healthy diet
• If you can, breastfeed your baby

WCRF Continuous Update Project is an ongoing initiative to review global research on cancer prevention focusing on how lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise and weight impact our risk of developing cancer.  Based on these findings the WCRF will update their Cancer Prevention Recommendations which they hope will provide the public, governments and charitable organisations with accurate information on how to reduce cancer risk.

For more information you can download the full summary below or visit the WCRF’s website.

Prostate Cancer UK is seeking to better understand the information and support needs of people who are, or have been, closely affected by prostate cancer across the UK.  Justice Studio has been commissioned by Prostate Cancer UK to undertake research into these unmet needs.

They are interested in hearing from both people who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer  and their supporters, such as a partner, family member or carer.

The aim of this research is to understand more about unmet needs in relation to a prostate cancer diagnosis. Unmet needs are defined as those needs in relation to a prostate cancer diagnosis that are not being met by the NHS, including a GP or other healthcare provider. The research consists of a survey, as well as face-to-face and telephone interviews with diagnosed people and the people who support them.

Prostate Cancer UK  are particularly interested in hearing from Black African/Caribbean men, gay and bisexual men and their supporters.

If you fit any of the above criteria and would like to take part you can complete the survey here. The survey should take 10 to 30 minutes. Responses are completely anonymous and will directly inform the charity about what support services they can offer in the future and where they focus their campaigning work.

For more information about this piece of work please contact Shirley Ahura on shirley@justicestudio.org

 

The University of Northumbria would like to say a big thank you to everyone who took part in their survey. The survey is now closed and they are no longer collecting data.

Researchers from the Northumbria University are conducting a new piece of research that will investigate the advice that cancer patients are receiving about physical activity after their diagnosis. They will explore whether the advice given to patients is appropriate for them and their needs. The findings from this work will help inform the development of future interventions to try to optimise the nature of physical activity advice being given to people after a cancer diagnosis.

If you have experience with cancer, you can take part in this important piece of work by completing an online survey. The survey asks participants about their current health, their physical activity habits and about any physical activity advice they received. Most of the questions have multiple choice answers with only a couple asking for further details.

This research has been approved by an institutional research ethics committee. Participation in the survey is completely voluntary, and all answers people provide will be kept anonymous and so no one can be identified from any information they provide.

You can complete the survey here: https://goo.gl/forms/GaAK81TJVu877Tj93  and if you have any questions or would like any additional information please email us and we will contact the researchers on your behalf.