Anne
Anne is part of a birth cohort study. She did not become aware of her involvement until she was a young adult and moved into her own home. Anne is passionate about medical research and takes part in many studies.
Anne is married and has two adult children. She is a retired art and design teacher. Her ethnic background is White Scottish.
More about me...
Anne is part of a birth cohort study. She does not remember joining the study or being part of it until she was a young adult. She first became aware of being in the cohort when she had her own address and the research team were able to contact her. She continues to allow the research team to use her medical data and often fills out survey questionnaires as she believes that it’s “a fantastic thing to be part of a study like that”. Her enthusiasm for taking part is also related to her scientific background in physiotherapy and her husband’s biological research career. She recognises that, although she is only one person, her contributions can support a bigger picture. She is proud of her participation and sees it as her public duty to help other people.
A few years ago, Anne attended a reunion where she met others who were involved in the birth cohort study. She also met people who had attended her school which she described as “really lovely”. At this reunion, photographers took pictures of the participants in their primary and secondary school groups which gave Anne a sense of belonging. She was also curious to see how her peers’ lives had been.
The researchers at the reunion gave a talk about the birth cohort study and how the information had been used nationally and internationally. This gave Anne a sense of the size and importance of the study, and made her feel her contributions were worthwhile. At the reunion, there were stands advertising different activities. Anne signed up for one on mental health but has yet to be contacted. It is important to her to “join in” the cohort study and, as such, she has joined their Facebook page. Instead of a Christmas card, she said it has been good to receive a newsletter from the research team which has helped her to feel more up to date.
Anne is not concerned about data safety as she trusts researchers and the scientific process. She understands that her data becomes nameless, so she has no worries or concerns about data breaches. As she puts it, “I’m just putting my trust in the system”.
She continues to support medical research studies that benefit society, especially those that look to improve quality of life. She has recently taken part in a study about diet whereby she kept a food diary and had her vital signs checked for about 16 weeks. She has also planned to donate her body to science. Anne says to others that have been invited to take part in medical research that it is up to them, “but it is a really positive thing to do and it can make you feel good about yourself,” in that you are contributing to your society.
Interview conducted in 2019.
Anne can’t remember joining a birth cohort study, and it was many years later that she received some information in the post from the researchers.
Anne can’t remember joining a birth cohort study, and it was many years later that she received some information in the post from the researchers.
I’m sorry, but I don’t, I don’t really remember the initial kind of joining or, or being part of it until I was a young adult when I started to have my own address and they kept, I somehow got information from them through the post to say I was part of the cohort. So really it’s been purely something that I’ve just re-registered over the years to let them keep up to date with where I am and agree to continue, you know, agreeing to their requests to continue to use any of my medical data and so on.
Anne feels it’s important to contribute to research to make things better for society, for the “greater good”.
Anne feels it’s important to contribute to research to make things better for society, for the “greater good”.
I feel that the more we can all do, I’m very much a socialist at heart and I feel that everybody should be trying to contribute to make things better for everybody else, for greater good, so I’m really happy to do that in any way. I really want to support studies that are sort of run for the benefit of everybody.
Anne has seen the emergence of joint replacements in her lifetime and now, in her 60s, has seen colleagues and friends benefiting from these advances in medicine.
Anne has seen the emergence of joint replacements in her lifetime and now, in her 60s, has seen colleagues and friends benefiting from these advances in medicine.
I’ve seen, you know, when I was working then as physio, hip replacements were a new thing that had just come in and people were having these operations and you could see the benefit it was having for people. Now in my late 60s, I’m starting to develop arthritic joints and things like that, and I know that joint replacement is, is fantastic, you know, I’ve got colleagues and friends that have fake joints and, you know, they’ve got a second lease of life, so I think anything at all that is going to help.
Anne takes part in medical research studies as often as she can. She believes it’s part of being “an active citizen”.
Anne takes part in medical research studies as often as she can. She believes it’s part of being “an active citizen”.
My husband is also a research biologist who is collecting data all the time and analysing it and I know from him just how important each little part can be and, although, I’m just one person, I feel that I can contribute in some way. Over the years, both my husband and I have actively agreed to take part in studies that the hospital have put out requests for and so on. So, I just see this as another part of partly being kind of proud of being a child of the ‘50s, but also being an active citizen, so I see it as a public sort of duty in a way almost.
Yes, there was two different ones that we signed up for. One; my husband and I did it together and it was based at the hospital in [place name] and it was relating to diet with regard to is it lycopene in tomatoes and to see whether eating a more Mediterranean diet with a lot of tomato in it would be beneficial to your health and so on.
So, we did that. I think it lasted over a period of about 16 weeks.
Okay.
So, we had to sort of go to the hospital usually about once a week, early in the morning before breakfast to have blood tests and all our vital signs were recorded and so on. They then gave us breakfast and then part of the study was that they put us on one of the diets which they were testing out, so we were, and we were also given a diary that we had to complete, so we had to write down all the food that we ate and so on, for the period that we took part.
Okay, so they were taking blood pressure and things like that?
Yeah.
So once a week you were, you had your blood taken?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay what did you feel about that? [Laughs]
[Laughs] It’s not my favourite thing, but I have to get blood done every so often because my thyroid needs help, so I’m kind of used to it, but, again I thought, ‘Yeah, I’ll do this because it’s helping the study.’
The study team started sending a newsletter instead of a Christmas card which helps Anne to feel more up to date. She appreciates they are letting people know what’s happening and keeping in contact.
The study team started sending a newsletter instead of a Christmas card which helps Anne to feel more up to date. She appreciates they are letting people know what’s happening and keeping in contact.
What’s been good is, recently, instead of a Christmas card that they sent us, they’ve actually sent out a sort of a newsletter which has had more information on it, so it’s making you feel more up to date. It’s also got a local Facebook page that I signed up to as well. There’s not many posts on it but, you know, people have been putting up photographs and things like that, yeah.
Do you have any comments about the way it is written, the information given?
Ay, I thought it was, I thought it was good. I could see it was pitched possibly at an older age range which we are now sort of thing, so. But it had details about access to websites and things like that, so that’s really good. So, I certainly read it thoroughly. Although I couldn’t repeat what was in the last one because it was quite a while ago, but I certainly followed up and looked at everything that was discussed on it and so on. So, again, I felt valued that they had sent that out to me.
And I think it’s harking back to how things used to be in a way and that it’s almost quite old fashioned. It’s almost, like a curtesy that it’s just keeping in touch, so that it’s, you know, just letting you know what’s happening. So, it is feedback, but it’s got that kind of old fashioned traditional kind of context to it that we were somehow, that’s how you were brought up, so you let people know every so often or it’s, so, you know…
Okay.
…so, I think that’s really appreciated probably by others as well as myself.
Anne receives a Christmas card with a newsletter from the birth cohort study team. She sees it is a “courtesy” that fits with the study’s interest in “how you were brought up” in the 1950s.
Anne receives a Christmas card with a newsletter from the birth cohort study team. She sees it is a “courtesy” that fits with the study’s interest in “how you were brought up” in the 1950s.
And I think it’s harking back to how things used to be in a way and that it’s almost quite old fashioned. It’s almost, like a curtesy that it’s just keeping in touch, so that it’s, you know, just letting you know what’s happening. So, it is feedback, but it’s got that kind of old fashioned traditional kind of context to it that we were somehow, that’s how you were brought up, so you let people know every so often or it’s, so, you know…
Okay.
...so, I think that’s really appreciated probably by others as well as myself.
Anne feels taking part in a cohort study is a positive thing to do; it helps others and makes you feel part of society.
Anne feels taking part in a cohort study is a positive thing to do; it helps others and makes you feel part of society.
I would say it’s obviously down to themselves, but I think it’s a really positive thing to do and I think it makes you feel good about yourself. I think, you feel you’re being useful, that you can maybe in some way help other people. Just really to re-cover what I’ve mentioned earlier that I think it’s, it makes you feel more part of your society and that you’re helping, yeah, and that’s a good thing, yeah.