Dr Lesley Ward

Senior Research Assistant

School: Communities and Education

Dr Lesley Ward is a Senior Research Assistant in the Department of Social Work, Education, and Community Wellbeing, involved in the process evaluation of the NIHR-funded Promoting Local Access to Children’s Early language and communication Support (PLACES) project. A mixed methods researcher, and one of 12 inaugural Leadership Programme Fellows with the Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine, her PhD in Health Sciences investigated the role of yoga for musculoskeletal conditions. During her postdoctoral research at Oxford University, she completed training in randomised controlled trials and longitudinal qualitative research, then moved to Northumbria University as a process evaluation researcher on the NIHR-funded Gentle Years Yoga trial. A keen methodologist, Dr Ward has been instrumental in developing guidelines for the conduct and reporting of yoga research, including the CLARIFY checklist. A personal research highlight was being awarded the Scientific Article Prize by the International Society for Complementary Medicine Research for her publication on a pilot randomised controlled trial of yoga for pain and sleep management in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Musculoskeletal conditions; chronic illness; complementary and integrative medicine; rehabilitation; self-management; older adults

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Acceptability and feasibility of online delivery of chair-based yoga for older adults with multimorbidity – Lessons from a process evaluation of the Gentle Years Yoga trial, Ward, L., Bissell, L., Howsam, J., Tew, G., Wiley, L., Rose, F., Maturana Palacios, C., Rapley, T. 17 Mar 2025, In: BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
Perceptions and experiences of chair-based yoga by older adults with multimorbidity - a qualitative process evaluation of the Gentle Years Yoga randomised controlled trial, Ward, L., Tew, G., Wiley, L., Rose, F., Maturana Palacios, C., Bissell, L., Howsam, J., Rapley, T. 5 Mar 2025, In: BMC Geriatrics
Yoga for older adults with multimorbidity: teaching insights for optimising participant safety and inclusion from the process evaluation of the Gentle Years Yoga trial, Ward, L., Wiley, L., Rose, F., Howsam, J., Bissell, L., Tew, G., Rapley, T. 27 Jun 2025, In: BMJ Open
Chair-based yoga programme for older adults with multimorbidity: RCT with embedded economic and process evaluations, Tew, G., Wiley, L., Ward, L., Hugill-Jones, J., Maturana, C., Fairhurst, C., Bell, K., Bissell, L., Booth, A., Howsam, J., Mount, V., Rapley, T., Ronaldson, S., Rose, F., Torgerson, D., Yates, D., Hewitt, C. 1 Sep 2024, In: Health Technology Assessment
Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of offering a chair-based yoga programme in addition to usual care in older adults with multiple long-term conditions: a pragmatic, parallel group, open label, randomised controlled trial, Tew, G., Wiley, L., Ward, L., Hugill-Jones, J., Maturana, C., Fairhurst, C., Bell, K., Bissell, L., Booth, A., Howsam, J., Mount, V., Rapley, T., Ronaldson, S., Rose, F., Torgerson, D., Yates, D., Hewitt, C. 12 Aug 2024, In: NIHR Open Research
A 2x2 randomised factorial SWAT of the use of a pen and small, financial incentive to improve recruitment rates in a randomised controlled trial of yoga for older adults with multimorbidity, Fairhurst, C., Roche, J., Bissell, L., Hewitt, C., Hugill-Jones, J., Howsam, J., Maturana, C., Corbacho Martin, B., Paul, S., Rose, F., Torgerson, D., Ward, L., Wiley, L., Tew, G. 4 Mar 2022, In: F1000Research
Development and validation of a prediction model for self-reported mobility decline in community-dwelling older adults, Sanchez-Santos, M., Williamson, E., Nicolson, P., Bruce, J., Collins, G., Mallen, C., Griffiths, F., Garret, A., Morris, A., Slark, M., Lamb, S., Ward, L. 1 Dec 2022, In: Journal of Clinical Epidemiology
Development of the CLARIFY (CheckList stAndardising the Reporting of Interventions For Yoga) guidelines: a Delphi study, Ward, L., Nault, D., Cramer, H., Moonaz, S. 1 Jan 2022, In: BMJ Open
Longitudinal qualitative study of living with neurogenic claudication, Griffiths, F., Srikesavan, C., Ward, L., Boniface, G., Williamson, E., Lamb, S. 14 Sep 2022, In: BMJ Open
Patients’ perceptions on non‐specific effects of acupuncture: Qualitative comparison between responders and non‐responders, Ho, R., Ho, F., Adams, J., Cramer, H., Leung, B., Ward, L., Zhang, Y., Chung, V. 1 Mar 2022, In: Integrative Medicine Research