Dr Nicola Lindson

About

Dr Nicola Lindson's research is internationally recognised and focuses on tobacco addiction and smoking cessation interventions.

She leads the Oxford Tobacco Addiction Group (OxTAG) based within the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, and has achieved funding for, been involved in developing, and managed large multi-centre randomised controlled trials.

In 2011, Dr Lindson received the UK Society for Behavioural Medicine's (UKSBM) Early Career Award, and was awarded her doctorate examining new approaches to smoking cessation (smoking reduction and nicotine preloading) by the University of Birmingham in 2012. Dr Lindson has worked in Primary Care since completing her MSc in Research Methods and, as well as smoking and tobacco, has also investigated ways to aid GPs in identifying patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS).

In 2016, Dr Lindson was the Principal Investigator of a stakeholder engagement prioritisation project, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research (CTAG taps), which went on to inform the funding priorities of the NIHR and the French National Cancer Institute.

Dr Lindson is currently co-PI of a project to carry out a Living Cochrane systematic review of 'Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation'. More information on the project is available here, and a podcast (Let's Talk E-cigarettes) exploring findings can be accessed here, as well as through Apple podcasts and Spotify.

She is also a co-applicant on the Center for the assessment of tobacco regulations (CAsToR) TCORS 3.0 awarded for five years by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2023, leading the work being carried out in Oxford conducting evidence synthesis to inform modelling being carried out by the wider team. More information on this is available here.

Dr Lindson is also leading a programme of work investigating how best to help people in financial difficulties and/or in lower socio economic groups to quit smoking within services designed to provide financial guidance or assistance. So far, this involves a scoping review, two service evaluations (one within social housing and another within Citizens Advice Bureaus) and a project using stakeholder engagement designing and piloting new interventions in social housing.