The ARL team are involved in other research in rheumatology and physical activity including:

  1. MEDRA: Mediterranean Diet and rheumatoid arthritis - PhD project funded by a scholarship from School of Allied Health  The ‘MEDRA’ study is a 12-week randomised, controlled telehealth dietary intervention study in Irish adults living with RA that aims to evaluate the efficacy of a Mediterranean dietary pattern (MED Diet) compared to a Healthy Eating dietary pattern. The intervention will be delivered through telehealth methods and will assess the effect of implementing either a MED Diet or the Irish Dietary Guidelines on health status and quality of life in adults living with RA in Ireland. The study will also explore the beliefs, barriers and benefits towards adhering to the diet interventions and particularly participants’ ability in following a MED Diet with dietetic input and guidance. Primary Investigator: Dr Audrey Tierney. Ph.D Student : Tala Raad

  2. Sleep and physical activity in adolescents with rheumatic and musculoskeletal conditions

    Dr. Louise Larkin is interested in sleep and physical activity in adolescents who have rheumatic and musculoskeletal conditions. If you are interested in these topics please feel free to contact Louise.

  3. Pain and sedentary behaviour in Rheumatoid Arthritis

    Dr. Louise Larkin has collaborated with Dr. Helen O’Leary and Karen Quinn in the rheumatology services at Cork University Hospital to explore pain and sedentary behaviour in Rheumatoid Arthritis. The first publication from this collaboration can be found here https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/acr.24207

  4. Priority setting partnership – part of Arthritis Ireland research working group

    Prof. Norelee Kennedy and Dr. Louise Larkin are part of an Arthritis Research Prioritisation project. This is a collaborative project between Arthritis Ireland, University College Dublin, University of Limerick and The Patient Voice in Arthritis Research. The responses to the Arthritis Research Prioritisation survey are currently being analysed.

  5. IDEA-FAST-Identifying Digital Endpoints to Assess Fatigue, Sleep and Activities of Daily Living in Neurodegenerative Disorders and Immune-mediated Inflammatory Diseases
    Prof. Norelee Kennedy is a part of the IDEA-FAST project which is a 5½-year IMI2 project under Call H2020-JTI-IMI2-2018-15-two-stage – digital endpoints in neurodegenerative and immune-mediated diseases (total budget €42 Million) that starts in November 2019, run by a consortium of 46 partners across 15 countries in Europe.IDEA-FAST aims to identify digital endpoints that provide reliable, objective and sensitive evaluation of activities of daily life (ADL), disability and health related-quality of life (HRQoL) for the following neurodegenrative diseases (NDD): Parkinson Disease (PD), Huntington’s Disease (HD) and the following immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID): Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome (PSS), and Inflammatory Bowel.  ​

  6. IMPlemention of osteoArthritis Clinical guidelines Together” (IMPACT) study
    I    MPACT is a four-year project funded by a HRB Emerging Investigator Award and based at the University of Limerick. The aim of the project is to bring researchers, clinicians, patients and other stakeholders together to determine the best implementation strategy to deliver an evidence-based exercise and education programme for hip and knee osteoarthritis in an Irish health setting. Primary Investigator: Dr. Clodagh Toomey. PhD Student: Avantika Bhardwaj. 

 

Ph.D. Students: 

1. Ms. Tala Raad

PhD student in the School of Allied Health. Her research interests centre around the areas of behaviour change and the management of chronic conditions with a specific focus on diet. Her doctoral research investigates the impact of improving diet quality on reported symptoms and quality of life of adults living with Rheumatoid Arthritis in Ireland with a particular emphasis on the Mediterranean diet. She is a member of the Health Research Institute at the University of Limerick. Tala holds a Bachelor’s in nutrition and dietetics and a Master’s degree in health management from the University of Southampton, United kingdom.

2. Ms. Avantika Bhardwaj

PhD student on the IMPACT project. She has a background in Sport, Exercise Science and Medicine, completing her B.Sc. in Purdue University and M.Sc. at the University of Glasgow. Avantika's research will be focusing on the implementation and effectiveness of online delivery of the GLA:D programme for her PhD. 

 

Our publications can be found here

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Norelee_Kennedy/research

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Louise_Larkin/research