? Research Project

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Don Degludec

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Moderators: Will I be able to publicly recruit participants for my upcoming project using this platform?

I'm a final year student and the topic of my research is:

The psychological impacts of taking care of long-term diabetic pets and its effects on the owners' mental wellbeing

The study aims to explore the severity of our commitment, its perceived drawbacks and benefits, its impact on our quality of lives and mental health, and will likely also address the available support on how to improve the latter.

The study WILL NOT BE
  • Focusing on feline diabetes itself
  • Giving advice or suggestions regarding taking care of the patient/pet, nor will it insinuate personal opinions on duty of care
  • Involving experimental measures of clinical trials, such as the promotion and/or administration of new or existing drugs and supplements
  • Financially compensated
The study WILL BE
  • Ethically approved
  • Solely voluntary
  • Anonymous
  • Conducted at the beginning of 2025 on an easily accessible online platform in the form of a survey
  • Predominantly focusing on the owner/care taker's quality of life and mental wellbeing
The study MAY BE
  • Asking questions about the methods/routines/habits of care of the patient
  • Published

*** At the moment the title of the research could be subject to change in line with the narrowing or expansion of the topic, should my mentor advise me in favour of either. Regardless, the scope and aforementioned crucial parameters are to remain the same.

*** All finer details to be confirmed and clearly outlined to the volunteering participants prior to conducting the study, once the project is finalised and approved.

Should you have any concerns at this stage, I'll try my best to address those.
 
Thank you, Wendy! Given that he hasn't been online here for over a year, I took the liberty to email him.
I'd like to be transparent, so I'll copy my email to him below for you to read.

In the meantime, I'd still like to ask you, the moderators [@Wendy&Neko, @Sienne and Gabby (GA), @Marje and Gracie], to have a discussion about it and consider its possibility should I not hear back from him in due course.

It is because I would need an answer in terms of the approval of participant recruitment [alas the amount of resources I'd have available for the study] by the 4th Sept 2024 so I have time to adequately prepare the quantitative survey [or change methods to a qualitative approach of smaller sample sized 1-on-1 interviews, should you refuse].
I'd be extremely grateful for the prior opportunity, as my aim is to reach as many people as possible, so the data I collect and research I ultimately conduct could possibly [hopefully!] be a valuable contribution to the field.

I underlined a couple of crucial parameters in my email that I forgot to include in my original post above.

___

Good morning,


I was given your email address by Wendy, one of the moderators of FDMB to seek approval from you regarding my research project.
I'll copy my original message below about my proposal for you to be able to make an informed decision on the matter.

Regardless of FDMB being an openly accessible website to the public, I wanted to ensure to take the necessary steps prior, as opposed to going ahead of recruiting participants "on the spot".

I'd highly appreciate if you could get back to me in a timely manner. I do understand that the topic may be sensitive to some, but the research on this matter is extremely limited, and based on my personal experiences, I believe needing to be addressed further. As stated below, ethical considerations will be made, and as with every research, the right to withdrawal will be outlined, alongside support provided post-participation to those that may need it.


Thank you for your consideration
 
Thank you @Elizabeth and Bertie!

The research on this is incredibly limited and "old" [in terms of what counts as "relevant" in the field of science anyway :rolleyes:] so I find it necessary to explore. Especially since cats are incredibly prone to pick up on our psychological states, therefore it's easy to find ourselves in a Catch 22 situation - however, that's a topic for another project, maybe sometime in the future ;)
 
Don --

We would not give out email addresses. I don't even know if it's possible to pull individual email addresses and if so, it could be hugely time consuming. You could, however, post a note asking members, if interested, to contact you. (I would set up a separate email account for this purpose.)

I work in academia. I would not be comfortable approving any recruitment effort until I saw a letter from your institutional review board confirming that you have met your university's requirements for ethical conduct of research. The letter would also need to indicate who your faculty advisor is.

I'd also encourage you to look at some of the veterinary journals. The vet students often have to do research projects and you may find some appropriate articles there.
 
Thank you for your reply @Sienne and Gabby (GA)!

I'm not sure where did the assumption come regarding me requesting members' personal email addresses? As stated in my original post, the survey will be publicly accessible online by anyone interested via the link my university provides - we usually use Qualitrics.

It is an anonymous, quantitative approach for mass [my aim - international] data collection as opposed to a handful of individual, in-depth qualitative interviews on personal experiences.
Since the study would explore a certain population [care takers of long-term diabetic cats] I thought to seek approval in utilising your platform.

I did not consider different countries have such different protocols in academia. I also perhaps should've phrased my question differently: Would I be allowed to "promote" my public research on this public platform, seeking out the voluntary help of any willing member, by posting the link here once the study opens?

The process:

The opening page will outline the aim of the research, the privacy and confidentiality of how the data will be used, and will provide my, as well as my mentor's and university's details. It will ask the participants to click "consent" after reading all the information [aka to give informed consent to participate].

They would then answer to questions regarding demographics - likely only age, as I cannot recruit under 18s. We often include gender in demographics too, but I'm not sure whether it'd be necessary for this particular project. Since my aim is to expand the project internationally, they may be asked to state their country of location, but in all cases [apart from age] there is always a "prefer not to say" option.

The study will consist of a variety of questions, and the participants need to indicate their answer using a Likert scale type scoring system, e.g. 1 - Strongly Disagree, 5 - Strongly Agree.

Should they choose not to finish the questionnaire for whatever reason, they can stop at any point, close their browser and move on with their day [aka right to withdraw at any point]. Their data will not be saved, let alone included in the final analysis and the research itself.

Those that do complete the survey, will be asked to click "submit" their answers [the data] at the end of the last question, then will see the final page [aka debrief] stating my, my mentor's and my university's -as well as my university's mental health support team's- details once again. It will reiterate to contact us if the study had adverse effects on their wellbeing.
If my university does decide to ask the participants to input their email addresses it is more to do with formalities on duty of care within the field of psychology at this point, given that no extreme and disturbing experimental research could or would be ethically approved in this field for decades now.

I do hope this cleared up any confusion and concerns. Again, the research on this topic is extremely limited as it isn't a veterinary concern, but to do with psychology.
I'm extremely passionate about this, hence I'm asking you to consider me being able to signpost my research on this forum. The more participating members, the more data collected. The more data collected, the more the study's validity and reliability is ensured. The more valid and reliable the study is, the more likely for it making a real contribution to science.
 
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I was referencing post #5 where you note you were given an email address by one of our Moderators. I was assuming this was an add on to what you noted previously.

This is not entirely a public site. People are members of FDMB and have to request and be approved for membership. While it is at the discretion of our webmaster whether you can advertise your study, you are well advised to ask for permission.

Veterinary research also includes pet owners/caregivers. I've seen numerous surveys pitched to those who are caring for their pets. See this as an example.

I would also point out that not all of our membership are managing their cat's diabetes over the long term. There are likely more members who are caring for a newly diagnosed cat.
 
It was clearly stated for transparency that was the email I sent to Robert, to the address Wendy gave me above?

I understand your point, but the journal you've linked has nothing to do with psychology or the topic I'm doing research on... in psychology.

I've encountered many members here that are caring for their pets for over a year - which is exactly what I'm looking for.

If FDMB doesn't want to contribute and you're against me asking your members whether any of them would be interested in participating, then please just say that - it's fine. Should it be published, I'll make sure it will be explicitly outlined there too to protect the community's privacy. [As I'm sensing that to be the concern here.]
 
Don Degludec said:
It was clearly stated for transparency that was the email I sent to Robert, to the address Wendy gave me above?

I understand your point, but the journal you've linked has nothing to do with psychology or the topic I'm doing research on... in psychology.

I've encountered many members here that are caring for their pets for over a year - which is exactly what I'm looking for.

If FDMB doesn't want to contribute and you're against me asking your members whether any of them would be interested in participating, then please just say that - it's fine. Should it be published, I'll make sure it will be explicitly outlined there too to protect the community's privacy. [As I'm sensing that to be the concern here.]
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Thank you, Don. As a published biologist with an MS and also knowing the impacts managing FD can have on a caregiver (CG), I am interested in and can see the value in your project. While we do need to get Robert’s permission, and I will also reach out to him, we three Mods will discuss it as well. Personally, I see no harm because you would just be providing the information regarding the study and also a link where anyone who chooses to participate can anonymously go to and respond. The primary concern for us is ensuring our members’ privacy is maintained if they decide to participate.

I’ll reach out to Wendy and Sienne today and see if we can come to an agreement and then see if we can reach Robert. Thanks for your patience and I do understand the time crunch.
 
Don Degludec said:
Thank you so much for your understanding and proactivity in reaching out to Robert for such a speedy approval, @Marje and Gracie!

I will keep you updated about the progress of my proposal and the committee's ultimate decision about the research itself, of course.
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You’re welcome and please do.

We have Robert’s approval but just need to work with you on a few things to address Sienne’s concerns. Let’s keep talking.
 
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