Research Fellow
Phone: 0113 206 8952
Email: o.c.lindner@leeds.ac.uk
Oana’s research looks at the psychological and social determinants of physical, mental health, and well-being in people with who live with or beyond ill health, particularly cancer.
Interests
Oana prefers to take a lifespan perspective on the process of adaptation to illness to define potential determinants of well-being which could then be targeted within interventions and services.
In short, not all people from all walks of life will be similarly affected by cancer. The question is, what combination of psychological and social factors may facilitate or hinder their quality of life? More specifically, she is interested in:
- Psychological and social determinants of illness across the lifespan
- Psycho-social and cognitive outcomes in cancer
- Systematic reviews and meta-analyses for evidence-based health care decisions
- Evidence-based education in patients and health care professionals
- Communication between patients, caregivers, and health care professionals
Education/training
She’s been working on outcomes related to cancer and its treatment for 14 years, starting with her Bachelor and Master studies in Psychological and Educational Sciences, Babes-Bolyai University (Romania).
Her Psychology BSc explored parents’ illness perceptions, behaviours and their influence on the emotional distress of the paediatric cancer patient. Oana’s MSc in Clinical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy focused on the religions coping mechanisms in mothers of paediatric cancer patients. She also pursued a 2-year MBA course on Managerial Communication and Human Resources.
Her PhD, undertaken in the School of Psychology, University of Manchester, was supported through an MRC Doctoral Training Grant (MRC-DTG). It explored Chemotherapy-induced cognitive changes in working age non-central nervous system cancer patients.
Previous roles
For two years Oana worked in the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences on a project looking at depression trajectories in chronic illness and has been involved in two systematic reviews on the prevalence, costs and health care use associated with medically unexplained symptoms, anxiety, and depression.
Prior to this Oana was part of our PCOR team, to which she has now returned. She was a research fellow on the ePRIME project (electronic Patient self-Reported outcomes to Improve cancer Management and patient Experiences) and she led the evaluation of a novel service for post-treatment outpatients – Shared Community Follow-up Service for Germ Cell Tumour Survivors
Currently, Oana is a Research Fellow and Co-Investigator on the ESRC-funded project grant: Impact of cancer diagnosis on the social reintegration of teenagers and young adults. You can read more about this new study here
If you’d like to get involved with the Young Advisory Group for this project, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Oana.
You can follow the project team, add relevant information or contribute to any discussions on Twitter or Instagram (@YoungCancerLife).
Papers
Lindner OC, Boon IS, Joffe J, Stark D. 2020. Evaluation of the “Shared Community Follow-up” after a germ cell tumour – A novel initiative for remote cancer follow-up enhanced by online patient-reported outcome measures. European Journal of Cancer Care.
Cairns A, Battleday McLennan F, Velikova G, Brunelli A, Bell H, Favo J, Patella M, Lindner OC, Pompili C. 2020. General patient satisfaction after elective and acute thoracic surgery is associated with postoperative complications. Journal of Thoracic Disease.
Lindner OC, Jadhakhan F, Blakemore A, Guthrie E. 2019. Prevalence of common mental health disorders in adults who are high or costly users of health care services: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open.
Jadhakhan F, Lindner OC, Blakemore A, Guthrie E. 2019. Prevalence of medically unexplained symptoms in adults who are high users of health care services: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol. BMJ open. 9(7), pp. e027922-e027922
Lindner OC, Velikova G, Stark DP. 2019. Digitally enabled patient-reported outcome measures in cancer care. The Lancet Oncology. 20(1), pp. e2-e2
Lindner OC, McCabe MG, Boele F, Mayes A, Talmi D, Radford J, Wearden A. 2019. Discussing factors associated with quality of life in cancer follow-up appointments: a preliminary test of a pragmatic model for clinical practice. Clinical Rehabilitation. 33(4), pp. 762-772
Lindner OC, Ranatunge D, Stark D. 2017. Use of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures to Enhance Follow-Up after Germ Cell Tumour Treatment. In: Velikova G; Fallowfield L; Younger J; Board RE; Selby P (eds.) Problem Solving in Patient-Centred and Integrated Cancer Care. EBN Health
Lindner OC, Mayes A, McCabe MG, Talmi D. 2017. Acute memory deficits in chemotherapy-treated adults. Memory. 25(10), pp. 1327-1339
Lindner OC, Phillips B, McCabe MG, Mayes A, Wearden A, Varese F, Talmi D. 2014. A meta-analysis of cognitive impairment following adult cancer chemotherapy. Neuropsychology. 28(5), pp. 726-740
Lindner OC, Craciun C. 2009. Parents’ illness perceptions, maladaptive behaviours, and their influence on the emotional distress of the child – A pilot study on a Romanian paediatric cancer group. Cognition, Brain Behavior: An interdisciplinary Journal.
Lindner OC. 2008. Book review: Fundamentals of evolutionary psychology and genetic counselling. An integration of psychology and biology. Parallaxis.
Lindner OC. 2008. A descriptive view over the mortality caused by respiratory and cardiac illnesses in Romania and Great Britain. Parallaxis.
Research grants
I am currently a co-investigator on the Impact of Cancer Diagnosis on Social Reintegration project, funded by the ESRC (PI: Prof. Dan Stark)
Teaching
Oana co-supervises dissertations in the School of Sociology and Social Policy and on the Doctorate of Clinical Psychology in the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences.
Until recently she was a course co-lead and tutor on the Year 1 MBChB Individuals & Populations module and a tutor on Year 1 MBChB RESS module. While in Manchester, she was a Teaching Assistant in the School of Psychology for four years where she facilitated seminars in Research Methods and Statistics, Developmental psychology, Health Psychology, and Language and Communication.
Patient/Public Involvement and Engagement Activities
Over the past 2 years, Oana was the Patient/Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) Lead in the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences.
Currently she leads the PPIE strategy for a Teenage and Young Adult Advisory Group in PCOR and for our ESRC project. Oana contributed to several lay scientific communications in in the media, including:
BBC World Service – Health check (2019). Chemo-brain. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csy9k8
Lymphoma Matters (2015). Living with cancer-related cognitive impairments or ‘chemo-brain’. Retrieved from http://www.lymphomas.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdfs/lymphoma-matters-spring-2015.pdf (Highly commended by the British Medical Association).
The Telegraph (2014). Proof that ‘chemo brain’ does exist. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/10949956/Proof-that-chemo-brain-does-exist.html
BBC News (2014). Coping with my teenage chemo brain. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28163631
Contact – Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (2014). ‘Chemo-brain’ does exist. Retrieved from http://www.cclg.org.uk/write/MediaUploads/Contact%20magazine/1%20Magazine%20pdfs/Contact_65.pdf