Publications by authors named "Zoe Vowles"
Article Synopsis
- Both pregnant women and those with multiple long-term health conditions are often under-represented in clinical research, making it crucial to engage these groups for better inclusion in maternity studies.
- The Giant PANDA trial examines treatment strategies for severe maternal hypertension and aims to understand participation barriers while optimizing clinical trial delivery for women with multiple long-term conditions.
- Researchers conducted workshops with affected women and healthcare professionals to co-create a checklist of five key recommendations to improve research participation, such as involving women as partners and ensuring flexible study designs.
Background: More women are experiencing pregnancy with two or more long-term health conditions such as hypertension, depression or HIV (MLTC). Care can be complex and include multiple teams, health professionals and services. The type and range of maternity care models for these women and the role of the midwife within such models is unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Over a fifth of pregnant women are living with multiple long-term health conditions, which is associated with increased risks of adverse outcomes for mothers and infants. While there are many examples of research exploring individuals' experiences and care pathways for pregnancy with a single health condition, evidence relating to multiple health conditions is limited. This study aimed to explore experiences and care of women with multiple long-term health conditions around the time of pregnancy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: PlGF (placental growth factor)-based testing reduces severe maternal adverse outcomes. Repeat PlGF-based testing is not associated with improved perinatal or maternal outcomes. This planned secondary analysis aimed to determine whether there is a subgroup of women who benefit from repeat testing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Placental growth factor (PlGF)-based testing has high diagnostic accuracy for predicting pre-eclampsia needing delivery, significantly reducing time to diagnosis and severe maternal adverse outcomes. The clinical benefit of repeat PlGF-based testing is unclear. We aimed to determine whether repeat PlGF-based testing (using a clinical management algorithm and nationally recommended thresholds) reduces adverse perinatal outcomes in pregnant individuals with suspected preterm pre-eclampsia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- This study developed a core outcome set for future research on pregnant women with multimorbidity to tackle issues of inconsistent outcome reporting across studies.
- The development process involved a systematic literature search, focus groups, and Delphi surveys engaging diverse stakeholders, including affected women and healthcare professionals.
- The final core outcome set identified 11 key outcomes, including maternal death, severe morbidity, and baby survival rates, which should be consistently measured in related research.
Article Synopsis
- A qualitative study was conducted to identify important outcomes for pregnant women with multiple long-term health conditions by involving women, their partners, and healthcare professionals in focus groups.
- The study found 63 outcomes related to maternal health, child health, and healthcare utilization, with new outcomes discovered that haven't been previously emphasized in the literature.
- Participants highlighted the importance of care processes, particularly the need for effective information sharing during transitions in healthcare, showing a consensus on the significance of various outcomes across different stakeholders.
Background: Disadvantaged populations (such as women from minority ethnic groups and those with social complexity) are at an increased risk of poor outcomes and experiences. Inequalities in health outcomes include preterm birth, maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality, and poor-quality care. The impact of interventions is unclear for this population, in high-income countries (HIC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEngaging women affected by Obstetric Fistula as advocates has been proposed as an effective strategy to raise awareness of the condition. Limited literature exists on the experience of those who become advocates. A model of community education, in Sierra Leone, trained women affected by Obstetric Fistula to become volunteer Fistula Advocates.
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- * Researchers will analyze data from UK health records spanning from 2000 to 2019, examining various health outcomes during different stages: antenatal, peripartum, postnatal, and long-term mental health.
- * Ethical approval has been secured, and findings are set to be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at major conferences for wider dissemination.
Article Synopsis
- The study looks at how many pregnant women are taking multiple medications, which has become more common over the last 20 years.
- It gathered data from a big medical records database to see how often women used 2 or more medicines during pregnancy.
- The findings show that about 25% of women used multiple medications in their first trimester, and some risk factors for this include being overweight, from certain ethnic groups, or being a smoker.
Article Synopsis
- Pregnancy complications like pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes usually get better after childbirth, but they can lead to long-term health risks for women, such as heart disease.
- This study will look at different reviews to see how pregnancy problems are connected to five types of long-term health issues, including autoimmune diseases, cancers, and mental health issues.
- The researchers will analyze lots of studies to understand these links better and share the results, helping to create predictions for women's future health risks.
Background: Although maternal death is rare in the United Kingdom, 90% of these women had multiple health/social problems. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of pre-existing multimorbidity (two or more long-term physical or mental health conditions) in pregnant women in the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland).
Study Design: Pregnant women aged 15-49 years with a conception date 1/1/2018 to 31/12/2018 were included in this population-based cross-sectional study, using routine healthcare datasets from primary care: Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD, United Kingdom, n = 37,641) and Secure Anonymized Information Linkage databank (SAIL, Wales, n = 27,782), and secondary care: Scottish Morbidity Records with linked community prescribing data (SMR, Tayside and Fife, n = 6099).
Objective: To validate the BPro blood pressure (BP) wrist device for use in pregnancy and preeclampsia according to the Universal Standard protocol.
Participants And Methods: BP was measured sequentially in 45 pregnant women (including 15 with preeclampsia, 15 with gestational hypertension and 15 who remained normotensive) alternating between a mercury sphygmomanometer and BPro device.
Results: The BPro is accurate in pregnancy with a mean device-observer difference of -1.
Background: Maternal mortality has declined by nearly half since 1990, but over a quarter million women still die every year of causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Maternal-health related targets are falling short of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals and a post-2015 Development Agenda is emerging. In connection with this, setting global research priorities for the next decade is now required.
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