MRC Epidemiology Unit-
- Why was I re-contacted?
- Why does my report not include my blood results?
- Why do I not have any advice on improving my fitness or body composition?
- Why do I have a low PAL value when I am busy all day?
- What has happened to the information I gave in my questionnaires? Will I receive feedback on this?
- Will I hear back about research findings?
- I haven’t received my travel expenses. How long should I have to wait?
- My neighbour was interested when I told him about the study, can he take part as well?
- Will my GP be able to discuss the physical activity information with me?
- How do we keep our records up to date?
Why was I re-contacted?
Fenland 1 was a large scale study based on a single visit by volunteers and hence a single set of measurements at one time point. However, it is helpful to look again at the diet, levels of physical activity and blood test results of some of our volunteers. This will enable us to study how these factors change over time and to assess the long term effects of different lifestyles.
Why does my report not include my blood results?
With your permission we have sent your blood results along with the clinical measures taken at your visit (e.g. your blood pressure and ECG) to your GP. Your GP is best placed to review your results alongside your full medical history and provide appropriate advice. For example, there is no single “normal” result for cholesterol level, instead decisions about possible treatment depend on other (risk) factors such as blood pressure and family history of heart disease. If you do not hear from your GP within a few weeks of your test and would like to know more about your results, please contact your local general practice.
Why do I not have any advice on improving my fitness or body composition?
We are not best placed to give you personalised advice on improving your fitness. The information we have given to you is based on the short period of time that you were in the study. We hope that it will help you to assess how active you are currently.
Why do I have a low PAL value when I am busy all day?
The physical activity level (PAL) shown in your report reflects the level of physical activity recorded on the days that you were wearing the Actiheart monitor. Being busy in full time employment or looking after young children may be very tiring, but it does not necessarily involve sufficiently high levels of physical activity to cause big increases in heart rate. To attain a high physical activity level requires a raised heart rate over significant periods of time.
What has happened to the information I gave in my questionnaires? Will I receive feedback on this?
Your questionnaires will be very valuable in addressing how diet and physical activity levels are associated with, for example, levels of body fat, cholesterol and risk of disease. In order to have sufficient numbers to address these important questions we need to combine the information from all study volunteers. This analysis will not be done until the end of the study, so we cannot report any results to you at this time. We will provide you with feedback about these overall findings, but are not able to provide feedback about responses to individual questionnaires. For advice about individual test results please speak with your GP or practice nurse. Our Privacy Statement has more information on how we process and take care of your personal information.
Will I hear back about research findings?
We will be sending periodic newsletters to update all our volunteers on what we have found out from the data that you have provided. We also plan to hold public meetings to give you a chance to get more detailed feedback on the research and so that you can ask questions.
I haven’t received my travel expenses. How long should I have to wait?
We pass your travel claim on for payment as soon as we are able. That should mean that a cheque reaches you within 2 to 3 weeks of your visit. If you have waited longer than that and not received your payment please do contact us on our free-phone (0800 085 6183) or send us an email fenlandstudy@mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk and we will check on your payment for you.
My neighbour was interested when I told him about the study, can he take part as well?
We can only recruit volunteers who have already participated in Fenland Phase 1. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept other kind offers to help with our research.
Will my GP be able to discuss the physical activity information with me?
We have not reported your level of physical activity to your GP as there are no accepted thresholds in relation to activity, fitness and health for them to refer to. This is one of the issues that the Fenland study should help to address. For any technical questions you have please contact us and we will be happy to help.
How do we keep our records up to date?
We know that since the Fenland study started in 2005 many of you will have moved away and our contact details are no longer up to date. To ensure everyone who took part in the first phase of the study has an opportunity to take part in phase 2, we will be requesting up to date address and GP information from NHS Digital. NHS Digital is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department of Health and is the national provider of information, data and IT systems for health and social care. Information transferred between us and the NHS Digital will be subject to the same high standard of data security and confidentiality as all our research data. If you have any questions regarding this, please do not hesitate to get in contact.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any more queries regarding The Fenland Study using our free-phone number 0800 085 6183 or send us an email fenlandstudy@mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk