Jennifer

Age at interview: 67

Brief Outline:

Jennifer is part of a birth cohort study. She has received Christmas cards and short questionnaires in the post. She would like to receive more information about the study’s findings.

Background:

Jennifer is married and has two adult children. She is a retired assistant for students with special needs. Her ethnic background is White British.

More about me...

Jennifer is part of a birth cohort study. She was ill when she was a young child and cannot remember much about her involvement in the study. She vaguely remembers doing some writing tests at school as part of her participation. Jennifer has a friend who was a part of the same study and remembers more about it, which has helped clear up some of what she has forgotten. She is disappointed that she has not been more involved in the study as she would like to be in touch with people of her own age again. There was a reunion of the participants in the birth cohort study a few years ago but she was not able to go.

The researchers have kept in touch with Jennifer by sending her Christmas cards and information, and she has filled in short questionnaires. If her personal details change, she is able to contact them to update them. She remembers once being sent a questionnaire by post which she lost and the researchers were able to send her another one. Her memory of the questions asked was hazy, but she thinks they were about her life, marriage, and children. She would like more detailed information about what the outcome of the study has been so far, how the information is being used, and when the study is going to end. More regular meetings for cohort study participants to share the study’s findings would make taking part less of “a lonely thing” for her.

Recently, Jennifer has been contacted about participating in the birth cohort study again. She is very interested but does not know much about what they are trying to find out. Her motivation for continuing to participate relates to her interest in history as she enjoys learning about the differences between people living in her generation and today’s generations. Jennifer also continues to participate as she believes it could help people in the future. She often donates her blood to medical research and sees no risks to doing so. Other people have helped her when she was ill, so she wants to participate in medical research to help others.

Interview conducted in 2019.

 

When Jennifer lost a questionnaire, she contacted the researchers to ask them to re-send it.

Have they send you anything, a questionnaire, survey to fill in or…?

Yes, and once they sent a questionnaire and I lost it, so they sent another one and I did comment that I was glad they had sent the question, another questionnaire. 

So why did you feel that you wanted to carry on participating in this study.  Why?

I wanted to know if it was, what, what the outcome was going to be, but I didn’t want to be bad mannered by not replying. That was another thing too. I thought, they’ll think I’m very bad mannered.

Jennifer recommends giving participants more detailed feedback of study results.

Yeah, you get this envelope and you open it and you start reading, you think, ‘Oh, this going to be interesting.’ Then you think, ‘Oh, they’re not telling me very much.’

Okay.

And I get that, and I wonder what they’re getting, like, I just sort of said, I wonder what they’re getting out of it because they’re not telling us very much.