In July this year, a group of researchers based in the Blizard Institute were able to host an event for study participants after winning a Public Engagement grant from The Centre for Public Engagement. The team had recently completed a study called Child Growth and Development in East London (CGDEL), which involved local children from Tower Hamlets.
Children in the UK are not routinely screened for growth, even though national guidelines state that all children should have their height measured twice between the ages of 2 and 5 years. The team sought to assess the feasibility of screening for growth disorders using a novel, automated growth monitoring algorithm in pre-school age children. A total of 555 children with a mean age of 26 months completed the first visit, and 332 returned for a follow-up visit.
With the public engagement grant, the team were able to fund a Saturday morning event at the Mile End campus, in order to deliver research results to families in the community that took part in the study. This free event was designed to be welcoming and child-friendly, with families encouraged to also bring any siblings other than the child that took part in the study. A series of short talks were delivered by the research team, by an external charity called Child Growth Foundation - who also kindly donated funds towards the event – and by Tower Hamlets GP Care group, who facilitated the study visits and collected data. There was a children’s entertainer running a magic show in the break, refreshments provided, and opportunity for caregivers to speak to any of the staff running the event. Interpreters were on hand to assist any families for whom Sylheti is a first language, to reflect the demographic of the research sample. Reimbursement for travel was also offered, and there was an option to join on Zoom.
The event was advertised by Tower Hamlets GP care group, which led to 85 guests registering on Eventbrite. Reminder emails were sent out ahead of the event. On the day, turnout was fairly disappointing, with only 20 attending. Even with the low turnout, the event was successful in that the families who did attend were very engaged and enjoyed the talks. Anonymous feedback forms were collected at the end, which showed that participants felt that they ‘knew a lot about the benefits of research to the local community’ having attended the event, and the majority said they ‘would participate in another research study in the future’. Importantly, the researchers also received some useful feedback from caregivers about their motivations for taking part in research, and for how dissemination events like these could be improved further.
The CGDEL team would recommend hosting an outreach event to other research groups, and working with the Centre for Public Engagement. They look forward to future collaborations!
Isabella Cordani
Joanna Orr
i.cordani@qmul.ac.uk