Registration, About Me and new questions for everyone
To speed up the registration process, in future, anyone registering with HealthWise Wales will be asked to provide a few basic background details immediately after they have agreed to take part in the project. They will then be given the option to complete the other questionnaires or to log in later to do this.
People like you who have already registered with the project will not notice any difference in the login process. You will notice though that the "About Me" questionnaire is temporarily not available. If you want to change any of the contact details that you have given us previously, at present you will have to contact us by email healthwisewales@cardiff.ac.uk or by telephone 0800 9 172 172.
There is also a new questionnaire ("More About Me") that is open now for everyone to complete. This contains some of the information that you have given us previously (such as your ethnic group) and some new questions. Details about these are given below. These are the only new questions for you to complete now unless you are pregnant.
You can also still complete any questionnaires in the system that have been released previously, but that you have not done yet.
The next set of new questionnaires will be released in Autumn 2017.
"My Language" questions
The Welsh language has official status in Wales, and the Welsh Government and other public bodies are committed to seeing the Welsh language thrive.
In the "My Language" section of "More About Me", there are questions to find out whether you understand spoken Welsh, and speak, read and write Welsh.
These questions will allow us to count how many of our participants have Welsh language skills. It will also allow us to look at specific questions on access to health services, information or advice in Welsh, and the role of the Welsh language within specific health services such as speech and language therapy or mental health services.
"My Opinion" questions
We know that combining biological data with lifestyle data helps us to understand the causes of diseases and develop personalised treatments.
We are considering whether we should include the collection of biological samples (like blood, urine or saliva) in HealthWise Wales. We would like to know what you think of this idea.
In the "My Opinion" section of "More About Me", we have included 3 questions that ask about whether you would be happy to donate such samples to HealthWise Wales and, if so, which samples would you be happy to donate.
By answering these questions, you will be helping us to decide if and how to plan this work.
New questionnaires for pregnant women
The other new questionnaires available now are for pregnant women only.
Little is currently known about women's experiences of maternity care in Wales and what services (particularly non-NHS services) are accessed by pregnant women. We are interested in asking pregnant women about their health, wellbeing and experiences so that we can help to provide the best quality care during pregnancy and the early years of childhood.
We've included four short questionnaires to ask pregnant women about their pregnancy experiences, health, work, activities and wellbeing. The first module, 'My Pregnancy' askes for some details about your pregnancy and health. The second, 'What I Do', will ask about your work situation and caregiving. The third questionnaire, 'How I Live', asks some questions about your lifestyle (e.g., alcohol consumption, smoking, physical activity). The final questionnaire, 'How I Feel', asks about your wellbeing and stress. By including these questionnaires, we are hoping to better understand what aspects of care pregnant women in Wales find most helpful and identify key areas for future improvement.
