Project Area: Health service and technology evaluation
Project Summary
Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease and premature mortality nationally. Widening socioeconomic differences in smoking drive health inequalities. Addressing this priority requires closing the implementation gap between research evidence and practice regarding effective cessation interventions. Financial incentives to stop smoking (FISS) increase long‐term quit rates, however, further implementation research is needed. Through recent collaboration with the current supervisory team, the health service is exploring implementation of FISS to increase use and effectiveness of stop smoking services in ‘Slaintecare’ Healthy Community Programme Areas.
The overall aim of this scholarship is to train an outstanding and disruptive thought leader for excellence in co-creation and evaluation of innovative and complex public health interventions for deprived areas, using FISS as an exemplar topic for the thesis, underpinned by behavioural science theory. Specifically, the proposal aims to upskill a student in evidence synthesis and co-creation methods to answer the following question: Can we successfully co-design, collaboratively test and thoroughly evaluate a financial incentive for stopping smoking (FISS) scheme, using international best practice and theory, to impact service delivery?
The Scholar will focus on three studies:
-A systematic review of barriers to implementation in health services of FISS
-Co-design of FISS programme with stakeholders (staff and community members)
-Evaluation of FISS programme implementation using mixed methods: qualitative interviews, stakeholder survey and audit
The upskilling of the Scholar in mixed- and co-creation methods with disadvantaged communities is likely to place them in a strong position to apply for targeted funding and evaluation in the future.
Supervisory Team
Professor Frank Doyle (Principal Investigator), RCSI
Professor Debbi Stanistreet, RCSI
Dr Paul Kavanagh, HSE
This project will be based at RCSI
