Learning about ourselves through others
In 2016, I heard on KUAR-FM about a website, developed by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, offering Arkansans a registry that matches volunteers to local and national health studies based on the volunteer’s areas of interest.
Intrigued, I signed up. My area of interest: Healthy volunteer.
Five years went by. Then in December 2021, a message arrived, asking if I’d be interested in participating in a nutrition study that will help determine what amount of protein eaten per day is best for healthy older people.
Sure, I’m still healthy.
The study involves four visits to UAMS’ Reynolds Institute on Aging, drawing of three blood samples, undergoing a couple of scans and a muscle biopsy, and consumption of two sacks of prepared, measured and packaged food. Plus a fair amount of time.
Luckily, I can work remotely, so time off from my job isn’t necessary. I’ll get paid to join in. And maybe I’ll have a heckuva story to tell.
There are a lot of curious and inexplicable protocols to follow, but I’m not a medical professional or a scientist, so it’s no wonder they don’t all make sense. If one of the study’s organizers got dragged into a newsroom and had to start fact-checking reporters and editing copy on cryptic news-editing software that’s eventually heading to multiple platforms, I doubt they’d understand the internal workings of a newspaper any more than I understand theirs.
So OK, I’m in. And I’m finding the process to be fascinating, as well as informative. Along with making it clear how to comply with the requirements of the study, the researchers (who so far are polite, patient, professional, and good company) willingly share information with participants that they might not previously know, like discoveries made during a DXA scan (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, a type of medical imaging test), which reveal I have a mild amount of scoliosis, which has never bothered me. If researchers learn something that might be important for my health, they will tell me, they say.
There are over 8,000 volunteers in the registry. Among with the need for healthy volunteers, researchers seek participants to help them study topics such as new drugs, how drugs interact when used together, new surgery techniques and devices, fresh approaches to time-tested treatments, and ways to improve the lives of people with long-term health problems like blood disorders, infectious diseases, mental health issues, dementia, allergies, chronic pain, heart disease, weight management, sleep disorders, substance abuse, and long-haul covid-19.
Healthy people take part to help others and to make health care better. People with an illness take part for the same reasons, as well as to gain access to newly developed treatments (which may or may not help their illness).
Why volunteer? Because you want to. Information provided by UAMS explains that, in the case of the study I’m undertaking, there is no direct benefit to participation, and volunteers should only enroll to help the
researchers measure response to different amounts of protein in meals.
Not very glamorous, to be sure, and definitely not a hard sell.
The researchers, in an over-abundance of fairness, also suggest reasons to choose not to volunteer for this particular study: One of the visits will last around 13 consecutive hours, so participants must make arrangements to care for pets or dependents. There are two periods of fasting for eight to 10 hours before visits. Those who are leery of needles will endure three drawings of blood samples and a muscle biopsy and be asked to consume “heavy water” that may not have a beneficial effect on one’s stomach.
And finally, a way out is generously provided: “It is OK to say no. If you decided to take part in the study, it should be because you really want to volunteer.”
I guess I do. We’ll see how it works out.