Taking Part

Thank you for taking the time to consider registering with HealthWise Wales.

The pages within this "About" section contain all of the essential information that you need before you register.

On this page, we answer questions on the essential information you need to know about taking part.

Click on the question to show the answer.

What questions will I be asked now?

When you agree to take part, you will be asked to provide an email address and choose a password.

Once you've joined, you will be asked to answer some questions about your lifestyle, health and wellbeing on the study website.

There will be a set of questions that we hope everyone completes when they first register (the "core questionnaires" including background information, like your age and contact details, and questions about your life such as whether you work, exercise, drink alcohol or smoke, and your family situation). New questionnaires are then also added every 6 months (around March and October each year).

When you log in, you will see a list of questionnaires, showing the ones that you have already filled-in and the ones that are available for you to fill-in now. When you log in, you can complete all of the available questionnaires at once, or you can do some and then log in again later to complete the others.

You will also be asked if you have any feedback for us about the website and the study.

How often will I be contacted?

We will contact you every 6 months or so, to ask you to answer questions about your lifestyle, health and wellbeing. You will hear from us by email. Sometimes we will ask for information that you haven't given before. Sometimes we will ask you the same questions as before, so that we can see how your lifestyle and health is changing.

As well as this regular contact, the study team may contact you from time to time, to ask you to take part in new studies. You may be contacted because you have a specific condition (for example heart disease), or because of something that you have told us about (for example, your age). These studies may be done by other research teams. We will give you more information about these studies, such as what they are looking at, what you might be asked to do and how to sign up. It is up to you to decide whether you want to take part in these new studies and it won't affect your participation in HealthWise Wales if you prefer not to get involved.

How long will it take?

First you need to join the study. This should take about 5 minutes.

Then you will be presented with sets of questions to answer.

There will be a set of questions that we hope everyone completes when they first register (including background information, like your age and contact details, and questions about your life such as whether you work, exercise, drink alcohol or smoke, and your family situation). These should take about 10-15 minutes to complete in total.

There will also be new questionnaires added every 6 months. These should take between 5 and 10 minutes to complete each. Sometimes these will be totally new questionnaires, and sometimes we will repeat some of the questions we have already asked (to see how your lifestyle changes over time).

If you don't have time to answer all of the questions in one go, you can come back to the website later because you can save your answers once you have finished a set of questions.

To find out more about how to join, click here.

To find out more about how to log in once you have joined, click here.

How will my information be used?

By answering a few questions regularly, you will be helping to answer the big questions that will improve health and social services, lead to better treatments, and increase health and wellbeing for the people of Wales.

We will use your details (name, address, postcode and date of birth) to access your NHS number and information in your health records that are held by your doctor or by the NHS. This information can then be used, together with the information you give us through the website, to answer questions such as "Why are some people in Wales healthier than others even though they live in the same area?" or "Why are people admitted to hospital in Wales and what can we do so less people are admitted?"

We will also use the information you give us to find new studies that you could be needed for. Many people would like to take part in health and wellbeing studies. But it can be difficult to find out what studies are going on and whether you are suitable for them. It's also difficult for researchers to find people to take part in their studies. By signing up to HealthWise Wales, we will tell you when there are opportunities to take part in studies that are relevant to you. This already happens in other places like Scotland.

If you want to find out more about health research in general, the NHS has a website with more information here.

How else can I get involved?

We believe that our study will provide more benefits to people in Wales if we study the topics that are important to you. To make sure of this, we will invite you to take part in events, to tell us what you think. We want to understand what you think are the most important unanswered questions on health, wellbeing, and health and social care in Wales, and the issues that matter most to you.

For some events, we might ask anyone who is interested to come along, or we might ask specific people, for example, if you care for someone with a specific condition. These events are expected to take place in local communities regularly at convenient times.