Clinical trials

Hypertension is the most important cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD), stroke, and premature death (WHO, 2021). It is estimated by The World Health Organisation in 2021 that 1.4 billion individuals across the globe have high blood pressure, with only 14% of people actively managing these elevated levels. Simple and effective lifestyle strategies are required to help people improve their blood pressure and/or attenuate increases in blood pressure with ageing. Physical activity is one possible strategy: in previous research, several different types of physical activity have been shown to have beneficial effects on blood pressure (Blackwell et al., 2017). However, many individuals do not adhere to currently recommended levels of physical activity (150 mins of moderate intensity physical activity per week), due to a combination of the required time commitment, lack of motivation, and the associated levels of effort, exertion, and physical discomfort (Korkiakangas et al 2009). Thus, there is a need to identify alternative exercise interventions which will overcome these barriers but remain effective at improving blood pressure (Herrod, Lund, \& Phillips, 2021, Toohey et al, 2018). Low intensity isometric hand grip exercise training (IET) has been shown to result in large decreases in resting blood pressure in younger and older age groups, in both men and women, and in individuals with normal as well as elevated baseline blood pressure (Badrov et al, 2013; Bentley et al., 2018; Millar et al., 2014). In this research, IET has almost universally involved performing 4 x 2 IET holds at 30% of maximal voluntary contraction, 3 times a week, over a 4-8-week intervention (Millar et al, 2014). There are very few studies that have investigated the effect of changing different protocol parameters on changes in blood pressure and vascular health, and the minimal effective dose of IET is unknown. Defining the minimal effective dose of different types of exercise may help overcome key barriers to exercise by lowering the required time commitment, reducing perceived effort/exertion, and promoting more positive affective responses. One important modifiable parameter is training frequency and it is unknown whether reducing the frequency of IET will reduce the efficacy for improving blood pressure. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to determine if reducing the frequency of isometric handgrip training from four times a week to two times a week will affect the improvements in resting blood pressure and vascular health in people with hypertension. A secondary objective is to investigate the acute affective and perceptual responses to sessions of IET and the effect of training on these acute affective/perceptual responses.

This study is a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial investigating the effects of Hesperidin supplementation on cognitive function, fatigue, and stress. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive either 500mg of Hesperidin or a matching placebo daily for 12 weeks. The primary outcome is fatigue, with secondary outcomes including cognitive performance and mood. The trial seeks to determine if this dietary intervention offers symptom-alleviating benefits.

Patients on the waiting list for physiotherapy treatment for pelvic floor dysfunction will be randomly divided into three groups: * a group that gets a telephone call before their invitation letter is sent. * a group that gets a telephone call after their invitation letter is sent. * a group that does not receive a telephone call. The phone call is a brief 5-10 minute call, which will be semi-structured. It will remind the patient of their appointment time, it will outline what the treatment involves and highlight the potential benefits and drawbacks, and allow the patient to ask questions about the treatment.

The research aims to assess the relationship between treatments for a range of urogynaecological problems (pelvic floor dysfunction, cancers) and patient reported values, psychological states, and quality of life. The impact of treatments on patients' health outcomes will be measured, using specific urogynaecological outcome measures (for either pelvic floor dysfunction or cancer), and patient reported measures of general health and quality of life. Patients' psychological states and values will be measured by validated self-report instruments for these areas. Researchers will obtain consent for participation from patients. Following consent, baseline measures will be taken at the patients' routine appointment about 4 weeks prior to undergoing treatment (e.g., surgery or physiotherapy for pelvic floor dysfunction, or surgery for a urogynaecology cancer). These measures will be the routinely collected physical data obtained by medical staff, and patient reported measures of their general health, psychological state, and quality of life. These questionnaires should take about 30 minutes to complete, in total. The patients will undergo treatment (physiotherapy programme or surgery), which will not be affected by this research. About four weeks post treatment, patients will receive their usual appointment, and routinely collected physical data will be obtained by medical staff, and patients will complete the measures as described above. With the patient's consent, the above evaluation will be repeated at every follow-up appointment that the patient has (i.e. after 3months, and then at yearly intervals, for 5 years). The impact of treatments on objective routine health measures taken by medical staff, and on patient reported measures of health, quality of life, personal values, and psychological functioning, will be documented at each measurement point. Additionally, relationships between psychological states/values and both objective and subjective ratings of how treatments have impacted the patients will be established.