Role
Dr Leah Jayes is a Senior Lecturer in Public Health and Cancer Research UK Population Research Fellow. Over the last 15 years as a mixed methods researcher she has led the design, delivery and reporting of projects spanning various topics and populations within health services and public health. She have been awarded over £500K in external research funding as PI and Co-PI. Leah teaches and supervises students on the MA in Public Health and she also supervises three PhD students.
Career overview
Leah’s research career started within Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) before moving to the University of Nottingham (UoN) in 2010 where she worked on a range of tobacco control project for funders such as The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the European Respiratory Society, and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). At UoN she completed her PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health in 2017 working in partnership with HMPPS. Her first PhD study was cited as evidence by the Prisons Minister when outlining plans to implement smoke-free prisons across England in 2016. Her PhD went on to evaluate the introduction of the smoke-free policy. Building on the success of her PhD and collaborative work with the prison service, Leah was awarded a Cancer Research UK Population Research Fellowship in 2018. This Fellowship set out to explore relapse to smoking after release from smoke-free prisons and has led to the development and subsequent pilot of a intervention to support prison leavers to maintain a tobacco-free life after release (PROSPER intervention). In recent years, Leah has increasingly been involved in evaluating a range of public health interventions (covid-19 testing, a falls prevention programme, most recently a gambling awareness campaign). Leah moved to NTU in December 2022 to take up the role of Senior Lecturer in Public Health. Since moving to NTU she has been successful in gaining NTU QR funding (to evaluate the PROSPER intervention) and external funding from Cancer Research UK exploring the provision of stop smoking services throughout the UK (Co-Principle Investigator).
Research areas
Tobacco control, smoking behaviour, e-cigarettes/vaping, second-hand smoke, low socioeconomic and priority groups, health inequalities, mixed methods, interventions - developing, piloting and evaluating.
External activity
- Run a Public Patient Involvement (PPI) group ‘Tobacco and Nicotine Discussion Group’ (TANG) funded by a global research consortium, SPECTRUM (Shaping Public Health Polices To Reduce Inequalities and Harm).
- Associate Editor of Nicotine and Tobacco Research (NTR) journal
- Honorary Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham
- Peer review journals, conference abstracts (Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) conference), national reports (Cancer Research UK, ‘Tobacco Control Fund’ report) and grant applications.
Sponsors and collaborators
Recent external research funding:
- Cancer Research UK. Population Research Committee Postdoctoral Fellowship. Preventing relapse to smoking among prisoners after release: Developing and piloting a complex health intervention. September 2019 – December 2023 (no cost extension granted due to covid-19 associated delays). Principal Investigator
- Derbyshire County Council. Derbyshire COVID-19 Asymptomatic Community Testing Evaluation.. January 2021-December 2021. Co-Principal investigator
- Age UK Derbyshire District (AUKDD). Evaluation of AUKDD Strictly No Falling Falls Prevention Service. November 2021-April 22. Co- applicant
- NHS Race and Health Observatory. A review into ethnic health inequalities in precision medicine and the future of healthcare. July 2022-June 2023. Co- applicant
- Cancer Research UK. Analysis of CRUKs Youth Obesity Policy Survey. Nov 22- June 23. Co- applicant
- Cancer Research UK. Exploring the provision of stop smoking services for those in low socioeconomic groups (PROCESS Study). April 23 – July 24. Co- Principal Investigator
- Yorkshire and the Humber OHID. A mixed methods evaluation of a gambling marketing campaign. June 23- March 24. Co- applicant
Publications
- Jayes L, Waddington J, Britton J, Murray RL. (2023) A qualitative study of the implementation and continued delivery of complete and partial smoke-free policies across England’s prison estate. 2022. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 25 (6), 1099–1108. https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntac296
- Jayes L, Morling J, Carlisle S, Bogdanovica I, Langley T. (2023) Instructor and client views of a community falls prevention service and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative exploration of a service in England. J Frailty Sarcopenia Falls. 1;8(1):9-22. doi: 10.22540/JFSF-08-009
- Jayes L, Bogdanovica I, Johnston E, Chattopadhyay K, Morling JR, Devine S, Richmond N, Langley T. (2022) Perspectives of attenders and non-attenders to SARS-CoV-2 asymptomatic community testing in England: a qualitative interview study. BMJ Open. 1;12(9):e064542. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-064542
- Jayes L, Gupta A, Holmes S, Sahota O, Canavan M, Elkin S, Lim K, Murphy A, Singh S, Towlson E, Ward H, Scullion J, McKeever T, Bolton C. (2020) Management of fracture risk in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD): building a UK consensus through healthcare professional and patient engagement. International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. 15,1377-1390. https://doi.org/10.2147/COPD.S233398
- Jayes L, Murray RL, Opazo Breton M, Hill C, Ratschen E, Britton J (2019). Smoke-free prisons in England: Indoor air quality before and after implementation of a comprehensive smoke-free policy. BMJ Open. 9(6) e025782.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-025782
- Jayes L, Ratschen E, Murray RL, Dymond-White S, Britton J. (2016) Second-hand smoke in four English prisons: an air quality monitoring study. BMC Public Health 16, 119. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-2757-y (also see: www.gov.uk/government/publications/air-quality-reports)
- Jayes L, Haslam PL, Gratziou CG, Powell P, Britton J, Vardavas C, Jimenez-Ruiz C, Leonardi-Bee J. (2016) SmokeHaz: Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis of the Effects of Smoking on Respiratory Health. Chest. 150 (1), 164-179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2016.03.060
- Bains M, Britton J, Marsh J, Jayes L, Murray RL. (2014). Patients' and healthcare professionals' views on a specialist smoking cessation service delivered in a United Kingdom hospital: a qualitative study. Tob. Induced Dis. 12, 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/1617-9625-12-2
- Murray RL, Leonardi-Bee J, Marsh J, Jayes L, Li J, Parrott S, Britton J. (2013) Systematic identification and treatment of smokers by hospital based cessation practitioners in a secondary care setting: cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ; 347 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f4004
- Leonardi-Bee J, Jayes L, O’Mara-Eves A, Stansfield C, Gibson K, Ratschen E, McNeil A. (2012) Review 5: Barriers to and facilitators for smoking cessation interventions in mental health services. NICE Evidence Reviews: Smoking Cessation Acute, Maternity and Mental Health Services.
- Murray RL, Leonardi-Bee J, Marsh J, Jayes L, Britton J. (2012) Smoking status ascertainment and interventions in acute medical patients. Clinical Medicine. Feb;12(1):59-62. doi: 10.7861/clinmedicine.12-1-59