Child and adolescent health

Successful societies promote the health, development and well-being of its children and adolescents through investment in prevention, early intervention and access to education and healthcare. Such investment provides benefits in the life of the child, their offspring and for society as whole. Research at the RCSI School of Physiotherapy focuses on how children and adolescents can be nurtured and supported to participate fully in society.

Child and adolescent health are influenced by multiple factors and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides a key framework through which to plan, implement and evaluate child-related policies and actions. The RCSI School of Physiotherapy Child and Adolescent Health cluster aims to understand and address barriers to child health and development to improve health status, participation and well-being. Researchers work with children aged 0-18 years and diverse stakeholders in research areas including population health research, health services design and delivery, clinical research, education research and digital health.

We particularly focus on the role of physiotherapy and complex interventions in empowering children, adolescents and their families to achieve optimal health and development regardless of their health condition or the presence of chronic disease or disability.

The School of Physiotherapy also focuses on education at Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels to improve the delivery of paediatric and adolescent healthcare.

Meet our researchers

Principal Investigators 

• Dr Grace O’Malley (cluster lead)
• Prof. Helen French
• Louise Keating
• Dr Ailish Malone     
• Dr Jennifer Ryan

Current postgraduate researchers

• Dr Angela Hickey   
• Dr Desire Naigaga

Current postgraduate students

• Muhammad Abu Bakar
• Rosemarie McGee
• Caitríona O’Shaugnessy
• Nicola Sheridan
• Anthea Seager

RCSI collaborators

• Prof. Jan Sorenson
• Prof. Kathleen Bennett
• Prof. Ed Gregg
• Dr Aisling Walsh
• Dr Lisa Mellon
• Dr Catherine Bruen
• Prof. Claire Condron
• Dr Claire Mulhall
• Prof. Fiona Kent

Linked research groups and projects

• CP-Life Research Centre – active projects in this group include: The MOBILE study, the Cerebral Palsy Adolescent Growth Evaluation ( CP-AGE) and RELATE-CP
• Obesity Research and Care Group – active projects in this group include: BigO, COBWEB and Childhood obesity treatment: integrating mobile health technology into a paediatric obesity service
• The LANDSCAPE Project
• SCRUm study (Training load and injury risk in Leinster schoolboys’ rugby)