People from both sides of the border will benefit from new health and social care research trials thanks to a new Cross-Border Healthcare Intervention Trials in Ireland Network (CHITIN).
CHITIN aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people living in Northern Ireland and the border region of Ireland (Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, Cavan, Monaghan, and Louth) through cross border research collaborations.
The research will look at key health challenges such as youth mental health, obesity, asthma and stroke. A brief summary of each project is outlined below.
CHITIN has received €8.8m in funding from the European Union’s INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB).
Match-funding for the project has also been provided by the Department of Health in Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Welcoming the launch of the CHITIN project, Dr Janice Bailie, Assistant Director, Research and Development, Public Health Agency and lead partner on the project said:
“Funding of €8.8m for the CHITIN project is great news for health research. Not only is CHITIN going to help benefit the health and wellbeing of people and help prevent illness, it means that those people who may not have been able to access health research previously have the opportunity to do so in Northern Ireland and the border region of Ireland.”
Janice added: “In addition to this, a network of health and social care research professionals will be created and this will help shape research in the future whilst working towards a shared goal so people can enjoy the benefits health research can bring them in the future.”
For more information on CHITIN visit: http://www.research.hscni.net/chitin
The CHITIN trials are:
- Anticipatory Care Planning Intervention for Older Adults at Risk of Functional Decline: A Primary Care Feasibility Study (Host Organisation – QUB)
- BRAIN-Diabetes: Border Region Area lifestyle Intervention study for healthy Neurocognitive ageing in Diabetes (Host Organisation – QUB)
- Improving mental health among at-risk young people in a challenging border region (Host Organisation – UU)
- Inhaler compliance Assessment (Asthma) INCA_Sun: A Prospective 8 month, randomised, controlled, multicentre asthma education study in patients with unstable asthma using the INCA device (Host Organisation – RCSI)
- Mirror box therapy with Stroke: a cross-border Randomised Controlled Trial to evaluate the effectiveness of mirror box therapy in upper limb rehabilitation with sub-acute Stroke patients (Host Organisation – UU)
- MY COMRADE PLUS: A pilot cluster Randomised Controlled Trial, for patients with multimorbidity, of the MultimorbiditY COllaborative Medication Review And DEcision Making intervention (MY COMRADE), practice based pharmacists (PBP’s) or PBP’s plus an adaptation of MY COMRADE (Host Organisation – NUIG)
- PAIGE2 – Pragmatic Pregnancy and Post Pregnancy Lifestyle Intervention for Overweight Women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: a Randomised Controlled Clinical Trial (Host Organisation – BHSCT)
- A randomised pilot study of a theory-based intervention to improve appropriate polypharmacy in older people in primary care (PolyPrime) (Host Organisation – QUB)
- The feasibility of a walking intervention to increase activity and reduce sedentary behaviour in people with serious mental illness (Host Organisation - UU)
- The Walking In ScHools (WISH) Trial: A peer-led, school based walking intervention for adolescent girls (Host Organisation – UU)
- Delivery of a habit-based intervention ’10 Top Tips for a healthy weight’ to overweight or obese pregnant women on the island of Ireland: a feasibility study exploring integration into existing antenatal care pathways (Host Organisation – QUB)
