Over 4000 participants from the north west area of Adelaide agreed to help us by taking part in the North West Adelaide Health Study, primarily during 2000 and 2002-03. The cohort was randomly selected from the South Australian population and therefore we are unable to substitute people for you or add new adults to the original cohort.
In 2004, we once again invited you to take part in this very important study during Stage 2, which involved a second health assessment at either The Queen Elizabeth Hospital or the Lyell McEwin Hospital. Some participants were invited to take part in health-related sub-studies relating to asthma, heart disease and osteoporosis.
In 2002 and 2007, the cohort was invited to participate in a telephone follow-up study, which may have also included answering one or more questionnaires about people’s neighbourhoods, attitudes to fast food and/or about the Baby Boomer generation, which helped NOBLE (Nutrition, Obesity, Lifestyle and Environment) Study researchers with their investigations regarding obesity – for more information about these researchers, click here.
Currently, we are inviting you to return to one of the clinics for another free health assessment as part of Stage 3 of the study. Sometime during the period from now until the beginning of 2010, you will receive an approach letter, inviting you to return to one of the clinics. A trained health interviewer will then telephone you within a fortnight with some health related questions. During the interview, an appointment will be made for a clinic visit. Once an appointment has been made, an information pack will be sent out to you. It will contain the following material:
This confirms your appointment time and date. If for some reason you are unable to make it to your appointment, could you please ring either Sandy on 8222 7866 at the clinic or Janet on 8226 6054 in the study office as soon as possible. If you wish to let us know on the morning of the actual appointment, could you please call 8222 6910 (at the QEH) or 8282 0648 (at the LMcH). Other contact details (mobile numbers and email addresses) are available here.
You will need to fast for 8 hours before your clinic appointment so that your blood and urine tests are as accurate as possible. This means not eating breakfast or drinking anything other than water (ie not orange juice, soft drink, tea or coffee) on the morning of your visit to the clinic. We do encourage you to drink water prior to your appointment, as this helps with taking the blood sample.
This questionnaire is similar to the one you may have filled out previously, which seeks information on a range of general and health-related topics. For Stage 3, there is also a food frequency questionnaire that we invite you to complete, which will help us look at the nutrition levels of people.
Information about your doctor is required if you would like a copy of your results from the health assessment to be sent to your local general practitioner, as well as the copy that you will receive. We recommend that you talk to your doctor about your results.
We value your ongoing involvement and would like to be informed of any change of address, telephone number or circumstances. We ask that you provide secondary contact details in case we lose contact with you in the coming years.
You have been asked to provide a urine sample of the first (morning) urination of the day in the yellow container provided in the information pack. Please bring it along in a plastic bag to your appointment.
There are signs located around the hospitals to give you directions to the North West Adelaide Health Study clinics. If you have difficulty locating the clinic, please ask one of the staff at the hospital for directions to the clinic. Click here on the appropriate name to find a street map and clinic location map for both The Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Lyell McEwin Hospital.
Wherever possible, to help with the tests, we ask that you withhold taking any medication at least on the morning or your appointment, or if possible 24 hours before visiting the clinic. You are welcome to bring your medication with you to take with the refreshments provided, after the blood sample has been taken.
If you would like to ask us a question or any information about the study, please contact us either by using the email contact form or via one of the telephone numbers available here.
Website last updated: July 2009
