Lenus: Research Repository

Ireland's central source for Open Access health research:

Lenus contains the research output of Health Service Executive (HSE) and over 130 other organisations in Ireland. Anyone who has conducted health related research in an institution or health organisation in Ireland, can upload their published research to Lenus by clicking ‘Submit Research’.

HSE Open Access Research Awards 2025

The 12^th annual HSE Open Access Research Awards are now open for entries.

The awards are judged across the following categories:

Acute Care and Hospitals

Community and Social Care

Mental Health and Disabilities

Integrated Services

Entries will be reviewed by a panel of judges with research experience. There will be a prize for each category, and an overall winner will also be selected, representing the best of all submissions received.

A special Innovation prize will be awarded to recognise outstanding recent developments in practice or service delivery.

Winners will receive a custom piece of glassware celebrating their achievement.

Criteria for Entry

The research must have been published within the two years (24 months) prior to the closing date

The research must be available in full text in an Open Access forum (and added to the Lenus repository as a condition of entry)

At least one author must be working for or on behalf of the Irish health services

Entries close on Friday October 24^th 2025 and the winners will be announced in early December. For more information, email lenus@hse.ie.

Enter Now

Featured Items

An Evaluation of the Impact of a Multicomponent Stop Smoking Intervention in an Irish Prison.

Bowe, Andrea; Marron, Louise; Devlin, John; Kavanagh, Paul

The disproportionately high prevalence of tobacco use among prisoners remains an important public health issue. While Ireland has well-established legislative bans on smoking in public places, these do not apply in prisons. This study evaluates a multi-component tobacco control intervention in a medium security prison for adult males in Ireland. A stop-smoking intervention, targeting staff and prisoners, was designed, implemented, and evaluated with a before-and-after study. Analysis was conducted using McNemar's test for paired binary data, Wilcoxon signed rank test for ordinal data, and paired T-tests for continuous normal data. Pre-intervention, 44.3% (n = 58) of the study population were current smokers, consisting of 60.7% of prisoners (n = 51) and 15.9% of staff (n = 7). Post-intervention, 45.1% of prisoners (n = 23/51) and 100% of staff (n = 7/7) who identified as current smokers pre-intervention reported abstinence from smoking. Among non-smokers, the proportion reporting being exposed to someone else's cigarette smoke while being a resident or working in the unit decreased from 69.4% (n = 50/72) pre-intervention to 27.8% (n = 20/72) post-intervention (p < 0.001). This multicomponent intervention resulted in high abstinence rates, had high acceptability among both staff and prisoners, and was associated with wider health benefits across the prison setting.

2021-11-15

Applying a new approach to the governance of healthcare quality at board level

Martin, Jennifer; Khurshid, Zuneera; Moore, Gemma; Carton, Michael; Fitzsimons, John J.; Henry, Colm; Flynn, Maureen A.; Health Service Executive

2023-03-14

Outpatient elective induction of labour at 39 weeks' gestation (HOME INDUCTION): an open-label, randomised, controlled, phase III, non-inferiority trial.

Nicholson, Sarah; Flood, Karen; Dicker, Patrick; Molphy, Zara E; Smith, Orla T; Oprescu, Corina I; Wall, Eimear M; El Nimr, Sara N; Shanahan, Ita M; Kennedy, Bernard J; Daly, Ronan V; Gannon, Geraldine; Looi, Claudia; Fernandez, Elena; Malone, Fergal D

2024-07-17

Recent Submissions

Open Access
Trends in analgesia prescribing in primary care in Ireland and England between 2014 and 2022: A repeated cross-sectional study.
(2025-08-06) Mattsson, Molly; Flood, Michelle; MacKenna, Brian; Wallace, Emma; Boland, Fiona; Kirke, Ciara; Walsh, Mary E; Fahey, Tom; Moriarty, Frank
AIMS: Analgesic medicines are an important component of pain management, with different medicines carrying different risks and benefits. The aim of this study was to examine trends in analgesic prescribing in Ireland and England between 2014 and 2022. METHODS: Monthly data on medicines prescribed and dispensed in primary care were used. For Ireland, data comprised medicines prescribed through the means-tested General Medical Services (GMS), covering approximately 32% of the population, while for England, data consisted of medicines prescribed through all general practices. Outcomes included rates of dispensings, costs and standard doses (including oral morphine equivalents [OMEs] for opioids) per 1000 population, summarized per year for each drug class and drug. RESULTS: In Ireland, the rate of analgesia dispensings increased between 2014 and 2022 for most drugs. Opioid dispensings increased from 979 to 1220 per 1000 population (+25%), while paracetamol increased from 1295 to 1824 (+41%). Systemic NSAIDs decreased from 781 to 734 (-6%). In England, most analgesia dispensing rates decreased, with opioids decreasing from 721 to 585 per 1000 population (-19%), paracetamol from 734 to 484 (-34%) and systemic NSAIDs from 259 to 167 (-35%). CONCLUSIONS: Substantially different dispensing patterns were found in Ireland and England, with dispensing rates in Ireland generally higher and increasing between 2014 and 2022 and rates in England generally lower and decreasing. This discrepancy is likely largely driven by the older age and lower socioeconomic status of GMS patients; however, further research to understand the drivers for this high volume of use is required.
Open Access
Prevention of adolescent stimulant drug use: Do the home life environment and extracurricular activities influence this? Findings from the Irish Planet Youth Survey.
(2025-08-22) Daly, Fionn P; Millar, Seán R; Major, Emmet; Barrett, Peter M
INTRODUCTION: Stimulant drug use during adolescence (e.g., cocaine or ecstasy) can lead to a myriad of adverse health effects, but it remains uncertain how the home life environment and involvement in structured extracurricular activities may correlate with teenage stimulant use. METHODS: We conducted an analysis utilising data from the 2020 Planet Youth survey, an anonymous questionnaire administered to school-going adolescents in the western region of Ireland. All adolescents with complete demographic information on age, gender and drug use were included in the analysis. Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression was used to explore factors associated with adolescent lifetime cocaine or ecstasy use. Exposure variables of interest were factors associated with the home environment (parental rule-setting, parental monitoring, being outside after midnight), mental health, intergenerational closure (defined as the extent of connectedness between adolescents and their peers, parents of their peers, and between parents themselves) and adolescent participation in extracurricular activities (sports, arts, volunteering, and/or afterschool clubs). Limitations of this study included its cross-sectional design which precluded causal inferences, self-reported data which may lead to information and social desirability biases, respectively, as well as adolescents who were not enrolled in formal education being excluded from the sampling frame. RESULTS: In total, 167 out of 4890 (3.4%) and 136 out of 4895 (2.8%) adolescents had previously used cocaine and ecstasy, respectively. Almost half of the participants in both datasets were female (49.7%), and the majority were aged 16 years (62.8% and 62.7% of the cocaine and ecstasy samples, respectively). Being outside after midnight during the previous week was associated with lifetime stimulant use (cocaine AOR = 5.63, 95%CI: 3.98,7.97; ecstasy AOR = 6.37, 95%CI: 4.36,9.30) (vs. never). Adolescents who reported "bad/very bad" mental health had over three times the odds of previous cocaine use (AOR = 3.63, 95%CI: 2.39, 5.49), and over five times the odds of previous ecstasy use (AOR = 5.15, 95%CI: 3.09, 8.59) (vs. "good/very good"). A lack of parental rule-setting (cocaine AOR = 1.28, 95%CI: 1.10, 1.50; ecstasy AOR = 1.39, 95%CI: 1.17,1.64), lack of parental monitoring (cocaine AOR = 1.81, 95%CI: 1.58,2.06; ecstasy AOR = 2.15, 95%CI: 1.86, 2.48), and reduced intergenerational closure (cocaine AOR = 1.37, 95%CI: 1.18,1.58; ecstasy AOR = 1.57, 95%CI: 1.34,1.83) were associated with lifetime stimulant use. Teenagers who did not participate regularly in sport had increased odds of previous cocaine use (in a club/team AOR = 1.50, 95%CI: 1.06,2.11; outside of a club/team AOR = 1.45, 95%CI: 1.03,2.04) and ecstasy use (in a club/team AOR = 1.54, 95%CI: 1.05,2.27; outside of a club/team AOR = 1.79, 95%CI: 1.56,3.12). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of stimulant use among this sample of Irish adolescents is relatively high by European standards, particularly cocaine use. Reduced parental rule-setting, supervision and family bonding time was associated with higher odds of adolescent stimulant use. Regular involvement in sports may have a protective effect against adolescent stimulant drug use.
Open Access
The impact of the home life environment and organised extracurricular activities on adolescent cannabis use: Findings from the Irish Planet Youth Survey.
(2025-04-06) Daly, Fionn P; Millar, Seán R; Major, Emmet; Barrett, Peter M
OBJECTIVES: Adolescent cannabis use is a significant public health concern. This study aimed to investigate how the home life environment and involvement in extracurricular activities correlate with teenage cannabis use in Ireland. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study METHODS: We analysed data from the Planet Youth 2020 survey, an anonymous questionnaire among school-going adolescents in the West of Ireland. Adolescents with complete data pertaining to age, gender, and cannabis use were included (n = 4897). Multinomial logistic regression examined factors associated with cannabis use more than 12 months ago, within the previous 12 months (but not 30 days), and within the previous month (vs. never used). Exposure variables of interest included factors related to the home life environment (parental rule-setting, parental monitoring, being outside after midnight in the previous week, and intergenerational closure), and adolescent involvement in extracurricular activities (sports, arts, volunteering, and/or afterschool clubs). RESULTS: Overall, 908 (18.5 %) adolescents reported previous cannabis use. Specifically, 182 (3.7 %) had used cannabis more than a year ago, 361 (7.4 %) had used cannabis within the last year (but not 30 days), while 365 (7.5 %) had used cannabis within the past month. Being outside after midnight in the previous week, a lack of parental rule-setting, parental monitoring, intergenerational closure, and lack of participation in sports or volunteering were all associated with increased odds of adolescent cannabis use. CONCLUSION: Cannabis use is relatively common among adolescents in Ireland. Social environment factors related to cannabis use, both within the home and in the wider community, may provide valuable insights for actionable primary prevention interventions at the grassroots level.
Open Access
Judgement Support Framework 2025
(Mental Health Commission (MHC), 2025-01-18) Mental Health Commission (MHC)
Open Access
Guidance on Quality and Safety Notifications Mental Health Commission
(Mental Health Commission (MHC), 2024-08-25) Mental Health Commission (MHC); Mental Health Commission (MHC)

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