Browsing by Person "Thomas, Sarah"

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Efficacy of targeted versus non-targeted exercise and behavioural interventions on fatigue in multiple sclerosis: systematic review and meta-analysis
(PROSPERO, 2016-08-22) Moss-Morris, Rona; Mercer, Tom; White, Claire; van der Linden, Marietta; Thomas, Sarah; Harrison, Anthony; Safari, Reza; Norton, Sam
Review question(s) The specific objectives are to: (1) Provide a narrative synthesis of all the interventions, including a summary of the nature of the intervention using the Template for intervention Description and Replication (TiDieR), and assessment of study quality (risk of bias), alongside the standardised intervention effect sizes. As a detailed synthesis already includes studies evaluating interventions specifically targeting MS fatigue (ref: CRD42016033763), the narrative synthesis will focus on studies evaluating interventions that (a) do not specifically target fatigue, or (b) measured fatigue as a secondary outcome. (2) Conduct (pair-wise) meta-analyses to pool effect sizes across intervention types (exercise, behavioural, mixed) and estimate statistical heterogeneity. (3) Directly compare specific types of targeted versus non-targeted exercise, behavioural and combined interventions on fatigue in multiple sclerosis, using network meta-analyses. (4) Conduct exploratory moderator and sensitivity analyses to explore how treatment effects vary according to health care professional (HCP) contact, type of MS, and study quality (i.e. risk of bias).
Fatigue interventions in long term, physical health conditions: A scoping review of systematic reviews
(PLoS, 2018-10-12) Hulme, Katrin; Safari, Reza; Thomas, Sarah; Mercer, Tom; White, Claire; van der Linden, Marietta; Moss-Morris, Rona; Nater, Urs M.
Objective: Fatigue is prominent across many long term physical health conditions. This scoping review aimed to map the fatigue intervention literature, to ascertain if certain interventions may be effective across conditions, and if novel interventions tested in specific long term conditions may be promising for other conditions.
Mixed accents: Scottish children with English parents
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2015-11-01) Thomas, Sarah; Scobbie, James M.; Mompean, J. A.; Fouz-González, J.
We discuss accent mixture and the creation of idiosyncratic phonological systems in acquisition, with a focus on Scottish English. Such mixing is in addition to the relatively stable sociolinguistic systems of variation expected within a speech community, and arises when parents have radically different accents from each other or from the child's peers or other adult models. In terms of traditional geographic dialectology, there are a number of isoglosses around the Scotland/England border, but modern social mobility means that in some Scottish cities there are large numbers of families with at least one non-Scottish adult accent acting as a model for acquisition, which may feed into phonological change. Of particular interest is the influence of Southern British English accents. We exemplify the issues with two short case studies. The first concerns a child with mixed Scottish/English input in the home. His speech patterns do indeed indicate the acquisition of a mixed system. The second focuses on inter-sibling variation, looking at two sibling pairs who exemplify a different mix of accent features from each other. We examine two main diagnostics: monophthongal vs. diphthongal productions of the vowels in FACE and GOAT; and rhoticity. We also describe a parental demographic and accent attitude questionnaire as part of Case Study 2. The results support the need for speaker-by-speaker study of how incompatibility between two target systems is handled. We conclude that descriptions of mixed accents should be more common in the literature and approached on a feature-by-feature basis to help develop models of accent interference.
Speech Development in Scottish Children: a comparative study of the influence of local vs. non-local parental dialect on vowel acquisition
(2013) Thomas, Sarah; Scobbie, James M.
Our prospective study will analyse vowel patterns in 40 children living in Scotland's most heavily populated cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh. These are cities with markedly different socioeconomic compositions, and many socially stratified accent features (Stuart-Smith 1999; Chirrey 1999). Half the children will have parents with Scottish accents, and half with parents speaking Southern English accents. Transcriptional and acoustic analyses will be used to examine phonetic features and lexical sets memberships (Wells 1982) expected to differ between these two systems, e.g. monophthongal vs. diphthongal features (FACE and GOAT), potential phonemic contrast (COT vs. CAUGHT), and rhotic vs. non-rhotic pronunciations. We report here pilot work underpinning this research. First, we report on a single case study of a child with mixed Scottish/English input in the home, whose speech patterns indicated the acquisition of a mixed system, in particular with regards to monophthongal vs. diphthongal features. Second, using data from QMU's ULTRAX project, we focus on inter-sibling variation, exemplifying a range of Scottish/English accent mixtures.
Which behavioural and exercise interventions targeting fatigue show the most promise in multiple sclerosis? A systematic review with narrative synthesis and meta-analysis
(Elsevier, 2019-08-28) Moss-Morris, Rona; Harrison, Anthony M.; Safari, Reza; Norton, Sam; van der Linden, Marietta; Picariello, Federica; Thomas, Sarah; White, Claire; Mercer, Tom
Fatigue is a common and highly debilitating symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS). This meta-analytic systematic review with detailed narrative synthesis examined randomised-controlled (RCTs) and controlled trials of behavioural and exercise interventions targeting fatigue in adults with MS to assess which treatments offer the most promise in reducing fatigue severity/impact. Medline, EMBASE and PsycInfo electronic databases, amongst others, were searched through to August 2018. Thirty-four trials (12 exercise, 16 behavioural and 6 combined; n = 2,434 participants) met inclusion criteria. Data from 31 studies (n = 1,991 participants) contributed to the meta-analysis. Risk of bias (using the Cochrane tool) and study quality (GRADE) were assessed. The pooled (SMD) end-of-treatment effects on self-reported fatigue were: exercise interventions (n = 13) -.84 (95% CI -1.20 to -.47); behavioural interventions (n = 16) -.37 (95% CI -.53 to -.22); combined interventions (n = 5) -.16 (95% CI: -.36 to .04). Heterogeneity was high overall. Study quality was very low for exercise interventions and moderate for behavioural and combined interventions. Considering health care professional time, subgroup results suggest web-based cognitive behavioural therapy for fatigue, balance and/or multicomponent exercise interventions may be the cost-efficient therapies. These need testing in large RCTs with long-term follow-up to help define an implementable fatigue management pathway in MS.
Which exercise or behavioural fatigue interventions are effective for people with multiple sclerosis (MS)? A systematic review with detailed intervention breakdown and meta-analysis
(PROSPERO, 2016-06-01) Moss-Morris, Rona; Mercer, Tom; White, Claire; Thomas, Sarah; van der Linden, Marietta; Harrison, Anthony; Safari, Reza; Norton, Sam
Review question(s) The overall aim of this review is to provide guidance as to which of the existing exercise and behavioural interventions appear most promising for the treatment of MS fatigue. The specific objectives are to: (1) Provide a narrative synthesis of all the interventions including a breakdown of the key contextual and treatment components of each of the interventions, the acceptability of the interventions (uptake and adherence), and the study quality (risk of bias) alongside the standardized intervention effect sizes. (2) Conduct meta-analyses of effect sizes across interventions with similar key intervention components. (3) Compare the overall effect sizes of the exercise and behavioral interventions followed by subgroup analysis within each of these groups (e.g. behavioral interventions: energy conservation, CBT, combined; exercise interventions: aerobic endurance, strength, balance and combined). (4) Conduct exploratory moderator and sensitivity analyses to explore how treatment effects vary according to whether interventions were guided by theory or not, different levels of health care professional contact (e.g. email support, telephone, face-to-face), types of MS, comparators used, and study quality.