52 weeks in public health research, part 47

Posted by Bronia Arnott, Dominika Kwasnicka, and Lynne Forrest

From Bronia Arnott: The only way (is Essex)? Recently I was in Essex and the queue of traffic with all of the “slow” warnings on the road resonated with me as I had just had a systematic review of interventions to reduce car use and increase more active and sustainable modes of travel accepted for publication.

From Dominika Kwasnicka: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) strongly recommends that adults engage in any suitable form of physical activity. So you just need to pick and choose the one that’s best for you. Here is an adult version of a bouncy castle at a great event co-organised by one of Fuse's practice and policy partners Scott Lloyd. It’s always good to try new things. And if a bouncy castle isn’t your thing, how about some ice skating this winter?

From Lynne Forrest: A number of Fuse representatives, including myself, Shelina Visram and David Hunter, were among the 1500 delegates who attended the European Public Health (EUPHA) conference on Health Inequalities in Glasgow. This is my poster on a systematic review and meta-analysis that found no evidence of socioeconomic inequalities in stage at diagnosis for lung cancer.

From Bronia Arnott: An early morning trip to Newcastle Central Station which has recently been refurbished and is now looking much better. They even have some bike racks in decent places rather than stuck out of the way at the wrong end of the station. Coincidently, I was off to talk to people about active travel!


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A reminder from the Fuse blog group:

Each Thursday of 2014 we’ll try and post around four pictures on the Fuse blog that capture our weeks in public health research, from the awe-inspiring to the everyday and mundane. Given that more of the latter than the former exists in most of our lives, we foresee problems compiling 208 images worth posting on our own. So this is going to have to be a group project. Send an image (or images) with a sentence or two describing what aspect of your week in public health research they sum up and we’ll post them as soon as we can. You don’t have to send four together – we can mix and match images from different people in the same week.

Normal rules apply: images you made yourself are best; if you use someone else’s image please check you’re allowed to first; if anyone’s identifiable in an image, make sure they’re happy for it to be posted; nothing rude; nothing that breaks research confidentiality etc.

Email your posts to m.welford@tees.ac.uk or contact any member of the Fuse blog group.

52 weeks in public health research, part 28

Posted by Catt Turney, Bronia Arnott and Jean Adams

From Catt Turney: I've been thinking a lot recently about the role of place, space and environment in public health, and thought this smoking area at Paddington station was a nice example of a very simple space-related intervention. It's effectively a little cage around some chairs - the sign reads 'Smoking is only permitted in the area designated by barriers around this notice'. The station was busy but this area was completely deserted - a sign it's failing, or working as intended?

From Bronia Arnott: At Newcastle central train station to travel to Leeds for the UKCRC Public Health Research: Centres of Excellence Conference a couple of weeks ago to talk about developing interventions to promote active travel.

 

From Bronia Arnott: Being a parent can make you feel as if you are part of a government experiment that you never consented to at times. This week my daughter brought home this leaflet from school advertising the collaboration between Disney and Change4Life which you can read more about here. The idea is that by working together they will encourage children to increase their physical activity during the school summer holidays. As a developmental health psychologist I can't help but wonder if this intervention is being evaluated?

From Jean Adams: despite my Coke-marketing photo-obsession, my soft-drink of choice is in fact Diet Coke. So this can of Diet Pepsi was a novelty. Sometimes I wonder if people who put their name and face to junk food marketing campaigns think about the implications at all. Maybe Messi thought this was okay because it was Diet Pepsi and not the real thing (which I can understand, but might argue with). Or maybe he didn't think about it at all - it was just another photo shoot that his agent arranged for him.

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Just to remind you:

Each Thursday of 2014 we’ll try and post around four pictures on the Fuse blog that capture our weeks in public health research, from the awe-inspiring to the everyday and mundane. Given that more of the latter than the former exists in my life, I foresee problems compiling 208 images worth posting on my own. So this is going to have to be a group project. Send me an image (or images) with a sentence or two describing what aspect of your week in public health research they sum up and I’ll post them as soon as I can. You don’t have to send four together – we can mix and match images from different people in the same week.

Normal rules apply: images you made yourself are best; if you use someone else’s image please check you’re allowed to first; if anyone’s identifiable in an image, make sure they’re happy for it to be posted; nothing rude; nothing that breaks research confidentiality etc.

52 weeks in public health research, part 27

Posted by Catt Turney, Amelia Lake and Bronia Arnott

From Catt Turney: Being in an office when the weather is glorious can be a bit grotty. Luckily, the healthy-snack opportunities posed by summer almost make up for having to be inside rather than frolicking in the sunshine.

From Catt Turney: We recently had an unofficial DECIPHer social climbing Pen y Fan, a little mountain in South Wales. This greeted us at the end - apparently, even up a mountain, you can't get away from the idea that it's only a fun day out if there's junk food or alcohol.

From Amelia Lake: my pass from my first high level steering group meeting for the food responsibility deal - watching policy in practice & the negotiations & complications of food policy.

From Bronia Arnott: I was at the Sage Gateshead with my daughter for a performance called "At the Seaside". It was aimed at young children and parents and involved singing and dancing along to seaside-related songs. I was very impressed that they even made up a song about the importance of sun protection! Hopefully the catchy, repetitive, action song meant that at least some of the children went home remembering the importance of 'slip, slop, slap, seek, slide' - slipping on a t-shirt, slopping on some suncream, slapping on a hat, seeking shade or shelter, and sliding on some sunnies! 

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Just to remind you:

Each Thursday of 2014 we’ll try and post around four pictures on the Fuse blog that capture our weeks in public health research, from the awe-inspiring to the everyday and mundane. Given that more of the latter than the former exists in my life, I foresee problems compiling 208 images worth posting on my own. So this is going to have to be a group project. Send me an image (or images) with a sentence or two describing what aspect of your week in public health research they sum up and I’ll post them as soon as I can. You don’t have to send four together – we can mix and match images from different people in the same week.

Normal rules apply: images you made yourself are best; if you use someone else’s image please check you’re allowed to first; if anyone’s identifiable in an image, make sure they’re happy for it to be posted; nothing rude; nothing that breaks research confidentiality etc.

52 weeks of public health research, part 10

Posted by Bronia Arnott and Jean Adams

From Bronia Arnott: In a meeting with a policy-practice partner and I was given this funky glass which tells you about alcohol guidelines and also provides unit measures for different drinks. I was only drinking water out of it though!

From Jean Adams: when we moved into our purpose-built new offices a few years ago they were, understandably, a little stark and bare. This year a whole series of plants have mysteriously appeared in public parts of the building. They are very welcome new occupants.

From Jean Adams: the small cafe in our building sells a good range of food. But it makes me a bit sad that the cheapest hot option is a bowl of chips.

From Jean Adams: I tend to work on trains when I travel for work purposes. I feel a bit guilty if I don't and it's good, uninterrupted time for getting reading and thinking done. But at 8.45pm on a Friday evening it's okay to knit and read, isn't it?

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Just to remind you:

Each Thursday of 2014 we’ll try and post around four pictures on the Fuse blog that capture our weeks in public health research, from the awe-inspiring to the everyday and mundane. Given that more of the latter than the former exists in my life, I foresee problems compiling 208 images worth posting on my own. So this is going to have to be a group project. Send me an image (or images) with a sentence or two describing what aspect of your week in public health research they sum up and I’ll post them as soon as I can. You don’t have to send four together – we can mix and match images from different people in the same week.

Normal rules apply: images you made yourself are best; if you use someone else’s image please check you’re allowed to first; if anyone’s identifiable in an image, make sure they’re happy for it to be posted; nothing rude; nothing that breaks research confidentiality etc.

Also, this doesn’t mean we wont also be posting words. You word-based posts are, as always, much appreciated.

52 weeks of public health research, part 9

Posted by Bronia Arnott, Amelia Lake and Jean Adams

From Amelia Lake: years of hard work condensed into a succinct & excellent presentation. Ashley Adamson introduces Rachel Tyrrell's PhD presentation just before her viva. As one of her supervisors I'm still excited by the research Rachel conducted!

From Jean Adams: a welcome splash of colour on our desk/kitchen table at home reminding us that winter never lasts forever, and that mental well-being is as important as physical health.

From Bronia Arnott: at the train station again on the way to another meeting. Only to Durham for an askfuse meeting this time.

From Bronia Arnott: this is what my commute to work looks like - why not share a picture of yours?

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Just to remind you:

Each Thursday of 2014 we’ll try and post around four pictures on the Fuse blog that capture our weeks in public health research, from the awe-inspiring to the everyday and mundane. Given that more of the latter than the former exists in my life, I foresee problems compiling 208 images worth posting on my own. So this is going to have to be a group project. Send me an image (or images) with a sentence or two describing what aspect of your week in public health research they sum up and I’ll post them as soon as I can. You don’t have to send four together – we can mix and match images from different people in the same week.

Normal rules apply: images you made yourself are best; if you use someone else’s image please check you’re allowed to first; if anyone’s identifiable in an image, make sure they’re happy for it to be posted; nothing rude; nothing that breaks research confidentiality etc.

Also, this doesn’t mean we wont also be posting words. You word-based posts are, as always, much appreciated.

52 weeks of public health research, part 8

Posted by Bronia Arnott and Simon Howard

From Bronia Arnott: Healthy snacks for a meeting at the Human Nutrition Research Centre.

From Bronia Arnott: not so healthy snacks when it is my turn to cater a meeting.

From Simon Howard: the newly opened Beautiful Science exhibition at the British Library which charts the history of data visualisation, including a whole (brilliant) section on public health. 

From Simon Howard: this cartogram is from the Chief Medical Officer's forthcoming annual report, which I'm editing. It represents the number of fast food outlets per person at local authority level (darker = more), with the area of local authorities distorted to be proportional to the population. It raises really interesting questions about association with obesity, and shows the complexity of public health - we know there's an association between population density of fast food outlets and deprivation, but there are also weird outliers like Westminster, which is likely related to tourism, and coastal towns, which is likely related to fish and chip shops.

------------------

Just to remind you:

Each Thursday of 2014 we’ll try and post around four pictures on the Fuse blog that capture our weeks in public health research, from the awe-inspiring to the everyday and mundane. Given that more of the latter than the former exists in my life, I foresee problems compiling 208 images worth posting on my own. So this is going to have to be a group project. Send me an image (or images) with a sentence or two describing what aspect of your week in public health research they sum up and I’ll post them as soon as I can. You don’t have to send four together – we can mix and match images from different people in the same week.

Normal rules apply: images you made yourself are best; if you use someone else’s image please check you’re allowed to first; if anyone’s identifiable in an image, make sure they’re happy for it to be posted; nothing rude; nothing that breaks research confidentiality etc.

Also, this doesn’t mean we wont also be posting words. You word-based posts are, as always, much appreciated.

52 weeks of public health research, part 7

Posted by Bronia Arnott, Martin White, Sarah Morgan-Trimmer and Heather Yoeli

From Bronia Arnott: On my way to a meeting to discuss with public transport providers ways to increase more sustainable travel, but my train was delayed and I was late. Isn't it ironic?

From Martin White: Having been President of the Society for Social Medicine for the last two years and overseen the most radical revamp in its history, it was with some pleasure that I saw its new image revealed on Wednesday 5th February 2014. Please explore the site, look at the new newsletter and submit an abstract for this year's ASM in Oxford.

From Sarah Morgan-Trimmer: This is the new healthy snack table in the office that I share with Annie and Catt at DECIPHer, Cardiff. Public health represented in still life!

From Heather Yoeli: I’ve been doing much of my thinking and writing at the Cowgate Centre, which on Mondays is the main ‘fieldwork site’ for my PhD project. I use the desk beside the main CCTV monitors, and sometimes groups of local kids come over to watch one another making faces at the cameras. This is the scene I returned to after I’d asked one of them to 'look after my things for just a minute’…

From Heather Yoeli: My supervision team have not been excessively impressed with my first attempt at a ‘findings’ chapter for my PhD. And so, on my Thursday day off, I took my children to see the fantastic Judith Kerr exhibition at Seven Stories, hoping to inspire us all with some absolutely brilliant writing. As we shared a hot chocolate afterwards, I saw this stripy gift-wrapped shoebox inviting ‘feedback’ on their café. Giving and receiving an honest and constructive critique of one another’s work is an everyday part of academic life. I do prefer getting my feedback directly…


-------------------

Just to remind you:

Each Thursday of 2014 we’ll try and post around four pictures on the Fuse blog that capture our weeks in public health research, from the awe-inspiring to the everyday and mundane. Given that more of the latter than the former exists in my life, I foresee problems compiling 208 images worth posting on my own. So this is going to have to be a group project. Send me an image (or images) with a sentence or two describing what aspect of your week in public health research they sum up and I’ll post them as soon as I can. You don’t have to send four together – we can mix and match images from different people in the same week.

Normal rules apply: images you made yourself are best; if you use someone else’s image please check you’re allowed to first; if anyone’s identifiable in an image, make sure they’re happy for it to be posted; nothing rude; nothing that breaks research confidentiality etc.

Also, this doesn’t mean we wont also be posting words. You word-based posts are, as always, much appreciated.

52 weeks of public health research, part 6

Posted by Lorraine McSweeney and Bronia Arnott

From Lorraine McSweeney: submission!

From Lorraine McSweeney: boxing up left over study materials from a study about nutrition in pre-school children.

From Bronia Arnott: When the going gets tough...the tough make colourful reminders of their recruitment totals to date!

From Bronia Arnott: Getting some physical activity at work - to counteract all of that sedentary behaviour due to sitting around in meetings.

------------------

Just to remind you:

Each Thursday of 2014 we’ll try and post around four pictures on the Fuse blog that capture our weeks in public health research, from the awe-inspiring to the everyday and mundane. Given that more of the latter than the former exists in my life, I foresee problems compiling 208 images worth posting on my own. So this is going to have to be a group project. Send me an image (or images) with a sentence or two describing what aspect of your week in public health research they sum up and I’ll post them as soon as I can. You don’t have to send four together – we can mix and match images from different people in the same week.

Normal rules apply: images you made yourself are best; if you use someone else’s image please check you’re allowed to first; if anyone’s identifiable in an image, make sure they’re happy for it to be posted; nothing rude; nothing that breaks research confidentiality etc.

Also, this doesn’t mean we wont also be posting words. You word-based posts are, as always, much appreciated.

52 weeks of public health research, part 5

Posted by Bronia Arnott, Beki Langford and Sarah Sowden

From Bronia Arnott: The scale of the problem. As part of some research projects that I have been involved in I weigh and measure children, as part of the development of interventions to reduce overweight and obesity in young people. This is an abstract photo of a set of scales! Today I got a letter at home from the National Child Measurement Programme saying that my daughter will be measured soon. It feels strange to be on the other side of public health data collection!

From Beki Langford: On a night out in Stokes Croft (Bristol) I stopped my friends so I could take a photo of this sign. I'd just given a lecture about health inequities and obesogenic environments and this photo seemed to illustrate it perfectly.

From Sarah Sowden: I’m currently scoping a project around evaluating the use of outdoor gyms.  During a weekend trip to London I stumbled across another one…my three year old enjoyed trying out the treadmill but no other takers on a rainy January Saturday in Eltham.

From Sarah Sowden: Dashing home from work the other night, I saw this pinned up on the railings outside the medical school.  How about a free makeover as an incentive to exercise?

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Just to remind you:

Each Thursday of 2014 we’ll try and post around four pictures on the Fuse blog that capture our weeks in public health research, from the awe-inspiring to the everyday and mundane. Given that more of the latter than the former exists in my life, I foresee problems compiling 208 images worth posting on my own. So this is going to have to be a group project. Send me an image (or images) with a sentence or two describing what aspect of your week in public health research they sum up and I’ll post them as soon as I can. You don’t have to send four together – we can mix and match images from different people in the same week.

Normal rules apply: images you made yourself are best; if you use someone else’s image please check you’re allowed to first; if anyone’s identifiable in an image, make sure they’re happy for it to be posted; nothing rude; nothing that breaks research confidentiality etc.

Also, this doesn’t mean we wont also be posting words. You word-based posts are, as always, much appreciated.

52 weeks of public health research, part 4

Posted by Bronia Arnott, Mark Tully and Jean Adams 

From Bronia Arnott: Public health researchers seem obsessed with hot drinks. Even more worrying is: they all seem to drink coffee. I sometimes feel like the 'legal alien' that Sting mentions in Englishman in New York when I say "I don't drink coffee, I take tea my dear". I have drank coffee in the name of science however: as an undergraduate studying Psychology I once participated in an experiment on the effect of caffeine on reaction times. I found myself in the experimental group, rather than the placebo decaf control group, and had to consume the equivalent of a double espresso. I can't remember whether my reaction times were quicker or not, but I do know that they had to scrape me off the ceiling afterwards, so I am sticking with tea.

From Mark Tully: I could not count the number of times I have sent an email with no attachment (usually when pressed with deadlines). Hopefully this new feature of Outlook 2013 will save many apologetic emails and red faces.

From Jean Adams: The most recent Fuse Quarterly Research Meeting was held last Thursday at Teesside University's Darlington campus. We're trying to make the @fuse_online twitter account a bit more interactive and will be actively using twitter more before and during future QRM's. Please join in the discussion, even if you can't be there in person.

From Jean Adams: Teesside University is one of the five partner universities that together make up the academic bit of Fuse. I love the way they never miss an opportunity to remind you where you are.

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Just to remind you:

Each Thursday of 2014 we’ll try and post around four pictures on the Fuse blog that capture our weeks in public health research, from the awe-inspiring to the everyday and mundane. Given that more of the latter than the former exists in my life, I foresee problems compiling 208 images worth posting on my own. So this is going to have to be a group project. Send me an image (or images) with a sentence or two describing what aspect of your week in public health research they sum up and I’ll post them as soon as I can. You don’t have to send four together – we can mix and match images from different people in the same week.

Normal rules apply: images you made yourself are best; if you use someone else’s image please check you’re allowed to first; if anyone’s identifiable in an image, make sure they’re happy for it to be posted; nothing rude; nothing that breaks research confidentiality etc.

Also, this doesn’t mean we wont also be posting words. You word-based posts are, as always, much appreciated.

52 weeks of public health research, part 3

Posted by Bronia Arnott and Martin White

From Bronia Arnott: Waiting at Central Station Newcastle to go to a meeting I thought this represented one of the projects that I am working on, Reflect, which is all about transport behaviour (change).

From Bronia Arnott: Are YOU engaging users and stakeholders in your research? This week has been full of meetings with stakeholders and finding out more about public involvement in research. This photo was taken at Newcastle Civic Centre, the venue of one of the meetings this week. 

From Martin White: I am not a coffee-holic, but I do like a decent cup and will go out of my way to get one. Once a day, mid-morning. Brown powder that transforms into a vaguely coffee tasting hot drink just won’t do (although with a lot of sugar works quite well for a hangover - not that I am alco-holic either, mind). It has to have a real coffee taste and aroma. Some might find this vaguely snobbish, but I don’t care too much about where it comes from, as long as it tastes good. What has this to do with work? Well, there comes a point, usually about 2 hours after my breakfast tea (don’t get me started on tea...) when it becomes genuinely hard to concentrate. My mind starts to drift and I start to imagine the smell and taste of that well-earned cup of morning coffee. Bear this in mind if you have a meeting with me between 10 and 12.

From Martin White: The internet has quite simply revolutionised academia. And I am big fan of open access publishing. However, there is something reassuring about the thud of a weighty package on your desk, signifying the arrival of a real, ink on paper, printed copy of your latest research output. I have been fortunate in the last couple of years to have a couple of articles accepted by Milbank Quarterly, the North American health policy journal. The published output looks and feels like a paperback book. And you receive a nice hand-signed letter from the publishing editor with your copy. All very reassuringly old fashioned.

 

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Just to remind you:

Each Thursday of 2014 we’ll try and post around four pictures on the Fuse blog that capture our weeks in public health research, from the awe-inspiring to the everyday and mundane. Given that more of the latter than the former exists in my life, I foresee problems compiling 208 images worth posting on my own. So this is going to have to be a group project. Send me an image (or images) with a sentence or two describing what aspect of your week in public health research they sum up and I’ll post them as soon as I can. You don’t have to send four together – we can mix and match images from different people in the same week.

Normal rules apply: images you made yourself are best; if you use someone else’s image please check you’re allowed to first; if anyone’s identifiable in an image, make sure they’re happy for it to be posted; nothing rude; nothing that breaks research confidentiality etc.

Also, this doesn’t mean we wont also be posting words. You word-based posts are, as always, much appreciated.

They f*ck you up these parenting 'experts'

Posted by Bronia Arnott

Oliver James, author of They f*** you up: How to survive family life, spoke at the Hay Festival recently criticising modern parenting as too 'parent-led'. He said that infant’s needs should be responded to immediately and children should be given a sense of control for optimal development.

As someone who has studied parenting styles in infancy, the effects of infant-led parenting on breast feeding continuation, and the role of parental representations on attachment security in infancy you might think I would be nodding my head in agreement with him.

You would be wrong.

Instead I was doing this:

Thanks to @RachelStocker for bringing this gif to my attention

Why?

Firstly, because I think James is misguided in what being a ‘child-led’ parent is all about. He talks about responding “immediately” to infants, but responding quickly does not equate to responding sensitively. You can imagine a scenario where a parent responds quickly to a crying baby by shouting at it; the response is immediate but few would consider it to be very 'child-led'. Moving on to consider older children, James thinks that we should ‘love-bomb’ them. This ridiculous-sounding term apparently involves taking children away for a one-on-one weekend of activities directed by the child. That’s great, I’m all for fostering children’s sense of agency, but what happens when your child requests that you go to Disney World when you have been saving for weeks just to buy them some new school shoes?

The second problem that I have with what James had to say is his blatant disregard for scientific evidence. There is evidence out there which concludes that infant-led parenting and that treating your child as an individual with a mind of their own have positive effects. However, there is no evidence for what James specifically proposes. Unlike other scientists and researchers who actually need evidence to support our ideas, if you are Oliver James apparently you just announce it to the media and claim that you are far too busy and “don’t have time to muck about doing intervention studies”. 

You know Oliver, I feel your pain – I’m a busy working mum. It might seem like a lot of a hassle having to go through ethical approval, research governance, piloting, and assessing whether your intervention is effective. However, that is the way that research works. If I have a hypothesis then I am expected to test it, and then to publish my findings for scrutiny by others. I need to have evidence of efficacy, feasibility, and acceptability of any interventions I propose, not just anecdotes from parents who have emailed me to tell me that they think that I am right.

This brings me to the final point. James talks about 'parenting' but when you dig a bit deeper what he is really talking about is mothers. It is mothers who "should respond immediately" and what children really need is "a weekend with their mothers". Do fathers not have some role to play in this? Is parenting solely the domain of women? Does James not have anything to say about men? Actually he does have a lot to say about men. He says that men are “unpleasant, psychopathic, narcissistic, and Machiavellian”. He argues that we live in a society in which women are to blame for wanting to be like men and to beat mean at their own game. A game which clearly doesn’t involve love-bombing their children…

I disagree with what James had to say as a parent, as a scientist and as a woman.

But, I’m not writing this because I disagree with what he has to say. I can choose not to read any other articles by him. Instead I feel compelled to write this because there are many other parents out there who will read his comments. I’m not overly concerned that they might go out and ‘love-bomb’ their kids; maybe James is right and it “wouldn’t do any harm”. What I am concerned about is that parents are constantly overloaded with conflicting ‘advice’ from so called parenting ‘experts’. James is not alone in providing unsubstantiated ‘expert advice’ on parenting - yes, I’m looking at you Susan Greenfield and also at you Gina Ford. 

Mothers and fathers trying to do their best for their children are constantly bombarded with all sorts of unsupported conjecture dressed up as science through the media. If parents are looking for information then why can they not be given evidence-based research rather than being exposed to the uncorroborated opinions of self-styled parenting gurus? Parenting is hard enough without trying to fight your way through pseudo-science pedalled by these so called ‘experts’.

This kind of parenting expert could really f*ck you off, if not f*ck you up.


All quotes in this post are taken directly from this article.

Are we asking the right question?

Posted by Bronia Arnott

Recently I wrote about using twitter to recruit participants for a research study and how others said it couldn't be done. But were they asking the right question? Should they be asking if it SHOULD be done?

When I tweet to my followers on twitter I am sending information out to people who are like minded individuals. They probably follow me because they share some of my interests and probably because they like me have been caught up in the fallout from the weapon of mass distraction that is the Internet. So are these the kind of people I should be trying to recruit for a research study? A large proportion of them have a PhD and many work in academia (and I know how strange academics can be!). Even if they don't fall into those categories they tend to be those interested in mental or physical health, quite well educated, or my friends - which might not be very inclusive!

Reduce, reuse, retweet

But before I shoot down my research paper with the biased sample bullet let's take the finger off the trigger for a moment. Of course those things are true of my followers, but what about the followers of those who re-tweeted (RT'd) my requests for participants? Their followers may be more diverse than my own - especially those such as local radio stations who kindly RT'd. So, in theory, the further the RT was RT'd the more likely I was reaching people who were not that similar to me.

Taking another step back from the big red button, what kind of participants did I want to recruit? Well I was actually looking for adults of working age who regularly commute and own a smartphone – so if twitter users tend to be adults of working age who regularly commute and own a smartphone then perhaps that isn’t a problem?

However, while most twitterers are lovely (and recruiting this way allowed me to meet some of them who I may not otherwise have had the opportunity to meet) they are clearly different in many ways to those who don’t use twitter. Therefore while I do think people can and should recruit via twitter I don't think it should be the only method of recruitment. Unless you want to measure the effect of the weapon of mass destruction that is the Internet, then go ahead.

But enough about what I think, what are your thoughts?

They said it couldn't be done…

Posted by Bronia Arnott

Recently I needed to recruit some participants for a user engagement study that we were organising as part of our research. I had had in my mind for a while that I would probably try to recruit some participants via twitter. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a twitter advocate. I had been thinking about this idea for a while. However, when I mentioned my plan to others they said that they didn't think it could be done...

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, by Caravaggio

Due to some unexpected delays on the project I realised that my brief recruitment timescale was going to coincide with moving house and my daughter starting preschool. I negotiated to have time off as long as long as I could recruit participants while I was on leave. The appeal of a twitter recruitment drive became even more appealing. I thought maybe I should probably have a strategy (or maybe I was just procrastinating) so I checked out what times of the day were most likely to get Re-tweets and put my academic writing skills to the test trying to summarise the user engagement studies into the 140 characters allowed by twitter. I also thought about targeting specific people who I followed or who followed me (or our research project twitter account) and asking them to Re-tweet to their followers. "Shy bairns get nowt" and all that.

Soon the RTs were coming in and so were the hits on our project website. Slowly but surely the sessions filled up. So were the doubters right? It wasn't as successful as I would have liked but I think there were a few reasons for that: we had very specific inclusion criteria, limited time, no funds, and for some of the time I had no Internet access (the provider who messed up not once but twice will remain nameless).

I think in the end researchers probably can recruit using twitter. Whether they should or not is a different question...

This post would have been about bureaucracy, but it got caught up in red tape

Posted by Bronia Arnott

When your research is funded it is such a great feeling. You have spent hours toiling over your budget spreadsheet, having it rejected by the Institute finance officer, reclassifying your directly incurred and indirectly incurred costs. You have carefully crafted your theoretical argument and honed your methodological choices. You have even agreed to do another systematic review. And all that hard work has paid off; your research grant has been funded. Now that the money is finally in your hands you can do what you wanted. Right? You clearly haven’t worked in a University before, have you? 

If you had, you would have met the Director of the Institute of Red Tape: Mr Bureaucracy*. Mr Bureaucracy doesn’t care what your research project is, how much money you got, or who it was funded by; all that he cares about are rules and regulations. Before his promotion to Direction of Red Tape, he was Head of Health & Safety. The most impressive thing on his CV to date is his design of the Research Passport System.

I wouldn’t mind but I’m not asking to go out and buy a designer handbag with the money, I’m not asking to inflict torture on participants, I’m not even suggesting that my colleagues and I go on a round the world cruise; I’m asking to do what I said I would do and what I was funded to do. If I carefully researched the cost of an iPhone, made sure I put it into the right costings column on my grant application, and then the funding body agreed that we needed it so that we could develop a smartphone app to investigate mHealth then please, PLEASE, don’t tell me that a Nokia is just as good AND significantly cheaper.

Thankfully, all of the staff within my research institute who deal with finance and research governance are absolute stars and are not like Mr Bureaucracy at all. But if you do come across him please let me know; I need to speak to him about an iPhone.

*This character is entirely fictional, and any resemblance to any individual dead or alive is coincidental.

What do you get if you mix a scientist and a mother?

Posted by Bronia Arnott

I came across a headline on the way to work a few weeks ago “The data confirms: If you want to stay in science and see your children grow up, don’t have children before you have tenure”. As a post-doctoral science researcher, who doesn’t yet have tenure, and is already a mother of one did I dare read on?

The headline was the title of a post on the LSE Impact Blog. It referred to the findings of a study which found that childless women are “paid, promoted and rewarded equivalently to their male peers” but mothers are “far more likely to move out of the research-professor pipeline…”.


So for those just starting out who want a career and kids, they just have to wait until they have tenure to have kids. Right? But what if you get tenure and then find out that you’ve missed your biological window of opportunity? I can’t imagine many people regretting not getting tenure on their deathbed, but I can imagine the years of heartache that come with not being able to have the children you wanted.

And I’m not convinced that once you have tenure you can sit back and relax. All the professors I know are always talking about how busy they are! REF papers and successful grant applications don’t write themselves.

So what about me? Should I just give up and go home?

I wasn’t convinced so I thought I would do what I do best and do some further research… I found a piece in the Guardian suggesting that the proportion of women in science is much lower in the UK low compared with the United States. The article suggested that the problem wasn’t getting women into science, but getting them to stay. Apparently they often drop out to start families. This was beginning to sound familiar.

I got my coat.

But wait…on my way out of the door I remembered I had attended my first full institute meeting of the Institute of Health and Society, at Newcastle University. There was the usual IT updates and grant successes, but then they started talking about the Institute being awarded the Athena SWAN Silver Award, and suddenly the meeting got a whole lot more interesting. Some of the staff even put down their knitting needles.

This award scheme recognises good employment practices for women working in science and related fields in higher education and research. The Silver award recognises efforts, above and beyond university-wide policies, to identify challenges faced by women and implement effective solutions.

Professor Judith Rankin, who led the application, said that the Institute “has always strived to introduce good working practices to ensure that those women who wish to combine a family with a career can”. Professor Eileen Kaner, Institute Director, said: "Success in achieving this award acknowledges the considerable work to make working in science an attractive career option for women."

Did you notice that? Two quotes from two women, both Professors, one the director of the Institute! In fact the Institute is full of examples of successful women, including those who have children, some who even had their children before they got tenure!

On my way to pick up my daughter later that day the whole issue was still playing on my mind. While I was boosted by the news that there was such great work going on in the UK to support women in science, I realised that is was a sad reflection of the existing inequalities. Surely we should be better at supporting men AND women in their careers AND in their family life?