RESEARCH UPDATE Cystic Fibrosis Ireland caught up with Dr. Audrey Tierney, Senior Lecturer and Discipline Lead in Human Nutrition and Dietetics in the school of Allied Health University of Limerick, to hear how her work on diet quality in CF is going. Dr. Tierney was awarded a grant through the Health Research Charities Ireland/Health Research Board Joint Funding Scheme in partnership with CFI to investigate diet quality in people living with CF in Ireland.
What is the Title of your Research? The title of the research project is ‘Exploring diet quality in Cystic Fibrosis – enablers and barriers to eating a healthy diet in CF’ Who are your co-authors/collaborators? The project is being funded by Cystic Fibrosis Ireland and the Health Research Board and it involves researchers in the University of Limerick. We have CFI ambassadors as collaborators on the project also to guide the research and to make sure that the findings get reported to the CF community. What are your research questions for this study? The research project is aiming to answer these questions: • What are the typical diets consumed by people with CF living in Ireland? • How is diet related to overall health in CF? • What are the barriers for people with CF to eat a healthy diet? How is this question important to PWCF? People with CF have typically been encouraged to consume a diet that is high in energy to meet nutritional requirements. Trying to eat a diet high in energy can often mean that diets can be high in sugar and fat, or that the quality of the diet is not as good as it should be for overall health. With advancements in care and treatments in CF we want to assess the need for this high energy diet in CF and if weight, lung function and overall better health can be achieved and maintained with a healthy eating diet that is advised for the general population. But we don’t have Irish or even European data on what people with CF are currently eating and how this relates to health and wellbeing. This research is really important to inform practice guidelines and next steps in terms of what we advise for people with CF in terms of best types of diets to consume.
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Spectrum / Autumn 2021
