The Raine Study’s Participant Engagement Co-ordinator, Diane Wood is delighted to have co-authored a recently published paper investigating participant engagement and involvement (PEI) strategies across international cohort studies.
This paper highlights the importance of PEI in longitudinal cohort studies, and the authors hope it sparks further research to support best practice and foster collaboration between cohorts to share their experience.
‘The Raine Study was delighted to contribute to this important piece of research. The lead investigators were well organised, patient, and thorough with their questions,’ said Diane. ‘They wholeheartedly embraced participant involvement by asking engagement professionals, like me, to review drafts of the paper before it was published,’ she added.
The Raine Study has a well-resourced participant engagement team which implements long-term and well-established practices to involve its participants. These practices are regularly shared with cohort studies close to the Raine Study’s home in Perth, like the Origins Project and the Busselton Health Study, and the University of Bristol’s Avon Longitudinal study ‘Children of the 90’s’ in the United Kingdom.
Diane emphasises that the Raine Study already tailors its engagement and participant involvement practices to remove barriers that participants may experience when involved in studies over many years.
‘We consider our participants’ needs whenever we organise a follow-up and constantly evaluate the barriers to attending an appointment. We innovate to the point where we might, for example, offer an occasional home appointment or offer a very early morning appointment if someone has fasted overnight for a blood test,’ explains Diane.
Diane celebrated her 20th work anniversary at the Raine Study on 13th March 2025 and has fostered participant engagement since the start. The Raine Study has recently taken participant involvement to the next level, and asked participants to prioritise areas of research they’d like their data to be used. ‘We respect our participants – their involvement is one of the reasons we believe the Raine Study has been so successful over the past 35 years, said Diane.
Read the research paper here.
For further information visit: rainestudy.comms@uwa.edu.au or https://rainestudy.org.au
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