For Participants
Thanks to your involvement, we have published over 650 pieces of research in peer reviewed journals. You can search our research using a keyword search, depending on your area of interest, here.
We take the security of all data relating to our participants very seriously. The Raine Study’s data are stored in encrypted databases and on secure servers. The Raine Study’s biosamples are stored across several different secure locations. They are stored without identifying information on them in secure locations accessible only to qualified personnel. All these storage locations comply with the requirements of the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Western Australia, which in turn is in full compliance with the guidelines outlined in the National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992.
Any researcher that has access to this de-identified data goes through a rigorous protocol before access is granted.
- You will not be identified from the research – researchers do not see your name with your information.
- Every research project is checked to make sure it meets the highest scientific and ethical standards.
- In the same way as a doctor who treats you is bound to keep your information confidential, the Raine Study team, and all the researchers we work with, are bound to keep your information confidential.
You can read more about how we protect your privacy here.
Access to the data and biosamples is limited to security checked, trained and authorized personnel only.
Strict ethical and legal guidelines and policies for research are in place to prevent any unauthorized disclosure of participants’ contact details.
Participants’ contact details are not accessible to third-party organisations or individuals. For example, when conducting follow-up studies, Raine Study staff members contact participants directly and do not share contact details with any external parties.
As a longitudinal health study we track the same participant families throughout their life, so no, we don’t recruit any new families as the years go by. We may recruit new participants from our existing families, such as children born to our participants, but not new families. You guys are it, which is why you are so special to us!
Yes, of course. We are happy to pull out any information we can have collected on you if you or your doctor needs it. Simply send a written request to rainestudy@uwa.edu.au and we will be able to help.
You can update your contact details such as address, email, phone number as well as the birth of any children etc on this page, or call (08) 6488 6952.
You can add any details of children, spouses etc on this page, or call (08) 6488 6952.
We started booking appointments for our Generations follow-up in April 2023, and the follow-up is set to take place over 3 years or even longer if needed. We’ll be booking appointments in birth order, so you might not even hear from us until 2024 or 2025. However – if there is a certain time that works better for you (you live overseas or interstate and will be back for Christmas, for example) get in contact and let us know so we can do our best to help you.
We’re extra excited for the Generations follow-up because it is the very first time we’ve been able to conduct a follow-up that includes both our Gen1 and Gen2 participants at the same time. Not since our pregnant mothers were recruited to the study between 1989 and 1991, when we checked their health at the same time as conducting ultrasounds on their babies, have we been able to do this. This is important because it helps keep us unique among cohort studies.
Thanks to your involvement we know life-changing things like:
- Ultrasounds on pregnant mothers are safe and we have set international standards for ultrasounds during pregnancy
- Mothers who don’t smoke during pregnancy increase the outcome of having a happier and healthier child
- Children who grow up without a liquor outlet close to their home drink less as a young adult
- Young adults who participated in sport more as children have stronger bones
- Children who were breast-fed for four months or longer have healthier weight and less asthma and allergies
- Breast-feeding reduces the chances of a middle ear infection as a young child
- Children with better sleep patterns have better mental health in later life
- Teenagers who eat a healthy diet have better school achievement
- Even if you have back pain as an adolescent, it doesn’t mean you will experience it throughout life
- Children and adolescents who watch less TV have less fat as a young adult
- Vitamin D is good for eye health
- Working less than 38 hours a week decreases your risk of heart disease
Plus so much more. You can search more of our research here.
Participant involvement is at the core of all we do and we are keen to have participants involved in the early stages of our research projects. If you would like to get involved in future projects, email us your expression of interest to rainestudy@uwa.edu.au
Yes! Our follow-up physical assessments are all done in Western Australia, however we do a number of online questionnaires which you can still take part in. And, if you know you will be travelling back to Perth, we would love you to get in touch and let us know as we would love to see you for an appointment.
It depends on the follow-up, but yes – there are usually always some parts of each follow-up you can be involved in. Just let us know if you are pregnant or suspect you are pregnant when booking.
Whilst we aren’t just yet, watch this space. We are actually in the process of exploring our options to see if we can commence a simple project to start collecting pregnancy information from you. If you are pregnant however, let us know and we will keep you updated.
The Raine Study looks at all areas of health and well-being, not just physical health. So therefore the environmental factors associated with where you live, work and socio-economic details are really interesting areas of study. All of these details are of course kept confidential and always de-identified.
You’d think that if you were born into the Raine Study between 1989 and 1992 that would make you Gen1, right? But no, that’s not actually the case. We explain how we define the generations below:
Gen2: The core generation = the participants who were born into the study and who we have been following since before they were born
Gen1: Gen 2’s parents, the people who originally signed up to the Raine Study when the mum was pregnant with their Gen2 baby
Gen0: Gen 2’s grandparents
Gen3: Gen 2’s children