Dr Lesley McGregor

Senior Lecturer in Psychology

Psychology Room 3A113 Senior Lecturer Division of Psychology Faculty of Natural Sciences University of Stirling FK9 4LA, UK

Dr Lesley McGregor

Contact details

About me

I am a Senior Lecturer within the Division of Psychology and Co-Director of the Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology at the University of Stirling.

After completing my PhD at Stirling University in 2010, on the psychological impact of living organ donation, I began my Research Associate post at the Department of Behavioural Science and Health (Health Behaviour Research Centre until 2017) within University College London (UCL). There I transferred and further developed my skills, knowledge and interest in health communication and decision making to the area of colorectal cancer screening. My research initially focused on developing strategies, including a narrative-based leaflet, to increase uptake of the guaiac Faecal Occult Blood Test (gFOBt) within the English Bowel Cancer Screening Programme. My focus then moved to Bowel Scope (Flexible Sigmoidoscopy) Screening (BSS), which was introduced to the English programme in 2013. I have previously worked on studies to assess the psychosocial and sociocognitive predictors of BSS uptake and I more recently looked at the potential impact of GP practice based primer and reminder interventions on BSS attendance. Improving cancer screening uptake and improving bowel health more generally remain two areas of interest to me and I continue to develop research projects on these topics. In addition, I aim to lead and supervise research to understand further organ and blood donation activities and life and health post organ transplant with a particular focus on decision making, health communication and reducing health inequalities.

I am a registered Health Psychologist and Associate Fellow of The British Psychological Society. During my time at UCL, I co-led the UCL Qualitative Health Research Network (@UCL_QHRN), set up to help to bring together, encourage and support qualitative researchers in health care and I continue to support this initiative from the University of Stirling: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/qualitative-health-research-network/qualitative-health-research-network-0

Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology: I am co-director of the Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology programme and welcome emails from those interested in finding out more about this. Recruitment for our 2025 intake is now open. Applications should be in for 1st October 2024 by 12pm/noon (UK time). See our website for more details: https://www.stir.ac.uk/courses/pg-taught/professional-doctorate-health-psychology/

My Key Papers:

  • Wardle J and von Wagner C, et al. (2016). Effects of evidence-based strategies to reduce the socioeconomic gradient of uptake in the English NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme (ASCEND): four cluster-randomised controlled trials. The Lancet 387(10020), P751-759. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/30018
  • Kerrison R, et al. (2018). Use of Two Self-referral Reminders and a Theory-Based Leaflet to Increase the Uptake of Flexible Sigmoidoscopy in the English Bowel Scope Screening Program: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial in London. Annals of Behavioural Medicine, 52(11), 941-951. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/30118

Contact me for possible PhD supervision relating to liver disease, cancer screening, health inequalities, health communication, bowel health, blood donation and organ donation.

Research programmes

Research themes