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Dr Lesley Ward

Senior Research Assistant

Department: Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing

Dr Lesley Ward is a Senior Research Assistant in the Department of Social Work, Education, and Community Wellbeing, involved in the process evaluation of the NIHR-funded Promoting Local Access to Children’s Early language and communication Support (PLACES) project. A mixed methods researcher, and one of 12 inaugural Leadership Programme Fellows with the Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine, her PhD in Health Sciences investigated the role of yoga for musculoskeletal conditions. During her postdoctoral research at Oxford University, she completed training in randomised controlled trials and longitudinal qualitative research, then moved to Northumbria University as a process evaluation researcher on the NIHR-funded Gentle Years Yoga trial. A keen methodologist, Dr Ward has been instrumental in developing guidelines for the conduct and reporting of yoga research, including the CLARIFY checklist. A personal research highlight was being awarded the Scientific Article Prize by the International Society for Complementary Medicine Research for her publication on a pilot randomised controlled trial of yoga for pain and sleep management in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis.

Lesley Ward

Musculoskeletal conditions; chronic illness; complementary and integrative medicine; rehabilitation; self-management; older adults

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • Chair-based yoga programme for older adults with multimorbidity: RCT with embedded economic and process evaluations, Tew, G., Wiley, L., Ward, L., Hugill-Jones, J., Maturana, C., Fairhurst, C., Bell, K., Bissell, L., Booth, A., Howsam, J., Mount, V., Rapley, T., Ronaldson, S., Rose, F., Torgerson, D., Yates, D., Hewitt, C. 1 Sep 2024, In: Health Technology Assessment
  • Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of offering a chair-based yoga programme in addition to usual care in older adults with multiple long-term conditions: a pragmatic, parallel group, open label, randomised controlled trial, Tew, G., Wiley, L., Ward, L., Hugill-Jones, J., Maturana, C., Fairhurst, C., Bell, K., Bissell, L., Booth, A., Howsam, J., Mount, V., Rapley, T., Ronaldson, S., Rose, F., Torgerson, D., Yates, D., Hewitt, C. 12 Aug 2024, In: NIHR Open Research
  • A 2x2 randomised factorial SWAT of the use of a pen and small, financial incentive to improve recruitment rates in a randomised controlled trial of yoga for older adults with multimorbidity, Fairhurst, C., Roche, J., Bissell, L., Hewitt, C., Hugill-Jones, J., Howsam, J., Maturana, C., Corbacho Martin, B., Paul, S., Rose, F., Torgerson, D., Ward, L., Wiley, L., Tew, G. 4 Mar 2022, In: F1000Research
  • Development of the CLARIFY (CheckList stAndardising the Reporting of Interventions For Yoga) guidelines: a Delphi study, Ward, L., Nault, D., Cramer, H., Moonaz, S. 1 Jan 2022, In: BMJ Open
  • Longitudinal qualitative study of living with neurogenic claudication, Griffiths, F., Srikesavan, C., Ward, L., Boniface, G., Williamson, E., Lamb, S. 14 Sep 2022, In: BMJ Open
  • Patients’ perceptions on non‐specific effects of acupuncture: Qualitative comparison between responders and non‐responders, Ho, R., Ho, F., Adams, J., Cramer, H., Leung, B., Ward, L., Zhang, Y., Chung, V. 1 Mar 2022, In: Integrative Medicine Research
  • The Clinical Effectiveness of a Physiotherapy Delivered Physical and Psychological Group Intervention for Older Adults With Neurogenic Claudication: The BOOST Randomized Controlled Trial , Williamson, E., Boniface, G., Marian, I., Dutton, S., Garrett, A., Morris, A., Hansen, Z., Ward, L., Nicolson, P., Rogers, D., Barker, K., Fairbank, J., Fitch, J., French, D., Comer, C., Mallen, C., Lamb, S. 1 Aug 2022, In: The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences
  • CLARIFY 2021: explanation and elaboration of the Delphi-based guidelines for the reporting of yoga research, Moonaz, S., Nault, D., Cramer, H., Ward, L. 5 Aug 2021, In: BMJ Open
  • Effect of interval compared to continuous exercise training on physiological responses in patients with Chronic Respiratory Diseases: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Alexiou, C., Ward, L., Hume, E., Armstrong, M., Wilkinson, M., Vogiatzis, I. 2021, In: Chronic Respiratory Disease
  • Exercise Training-Induced Extracellular Matrix Protein Adaptation in Locomotor Muscles: A Systematic Review, Kritikaki, E., Asterling, R., Ward, L., Padget, K., Barreiro, E., Camargo Madeira Simoes, D. 26 Apr 2021, In: Cells

  • PhD August 16 2014
  • Psychology PGDip May 08 2010
  • Science and othersubjects BSc May 06 1989

Musculoskeletal conditions; chronic illness; complementary and integrative medicine; rehabilitation; self-management; older adults


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