5 Reasons Why You Should Participate in Health Research

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You may be wondering why you should participate in health research. After all, it can be a lot of work, and you may not be too clear about what it entails

However, there are many benefits to participating in health research studies. And these don’t just apply to you, but also to your loved ones.

In this article, we’ll cover 5 simple reasons why you should participate in health research and how you can benefit from it.

What is Health Research?

Before diving into the reasons why you should participate, let’s learn what health research is.

In the past year alone, based on Google Trends data, there has been a substantial increase in Google searches for the specific phrase “health research”.

Many seem to be curious about what health research is.

One likely cause is the increased awareness of clinical trials and drug development due to COVID-19 vaccines.

Here’s what health research is:

Health research is the systematic study of health and healthcare issues. It encompasses a broad range of research disciplines, including epidemiology, biomedicine, nursing, public health, and health services research. It is most commonly done through clinical trials and surveys.

Here’s an illustrated video from Novartis on how it works:

Why Should You Participate in Health Research?

1. To help find better ways to prevent and diagnose chronic illnesses

If you or a family member suffers from a chronic illness, participating in health research is one way to help find better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat the condition.

For example, by taking part in a clinical trial, you could be helping to test a new treatment that may eventually become available to others with the same condition.

Chronic illnesses include conditions like heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, migraines, and asthma.

Chronic illnesses are medical conditions that last for a long time and are usually complex, requiring ongoing care. They are often caused by a combination of genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors.

Most chronic illnesses cannot be cured, but they can be managed through lifestyle changes, medications, or other treatments.

Participating in health research assists scientists in learning more about how these diseases develop and progress – information that could one day lead to new ways of preventing or treating them.

As health research is a long-drawn process that requires a lot of time, data, and complicated calculations, innovations in the health research space are limited by the participants.

More participants mean more data, and that means better analysis for healthcare studies.

In short, by participating in health research, you’ll be playing a vital role in improving the health of yourself and others.

2. To improve the quality of your own health and the health of others

By taking part in health research, you could be helping to improve the quality of your own health and the health of others.

For example, if you participate in a clinical trial testing a new cancer treatment, you may receive state-of-the-art care and gain access to treatments that are not yet widely available.

In addition, if you were to start monitoring your health using activity trackers or smart scales, this will put you more in the know of your state of health. Many of us are not health-conscious because we don’t have a metric to track our health by.

Using smart wearables that track your health condition in studies can help you to monitor your health. In some studies, these may be sent to you at no cost at all!

This data is then used to improve the quality of health for everyone.

For example, we partnered with a pharmaceutical company to use wearable data to assess Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients’ disease activity.

The study found that lower mobility is significantly associated with increased pain.

This mobility is measured using step and sleep data from wearables.

3. To receive information about new clinical trials relevant to you or your loved ones

Clinical trials are constantly being conducted to test new treatments for various conditions.

By signing up for a health research study, you can opt to be notified of clinical trials that may be relevant to you or your loved ones.

This is an important way to stay updated on the latest advances in treatment and care, and also provides an opportunity to receive new and potentially life-saving treatments.

In some cases, you may even have the opportunity to receive treatment at no cost.

Joining a health research study is a great way to stay informed about the latest medical advances and to potentially receive new treatments that could improve your health or the health of your loved ones.

Of course, this must be done with informed consent and according to the Good Clinical Practice (GCP) standard.

In Evidation, data security and privacy are a top priority.

4. To gain access to experimental treatments before they are widely available

In some cases, you may have the opportunity to receive experimental treatments through a clinical trial before they’re widely available.

This can be an exciting way to receive cutting-edge care and potentially benefit from new treatments before they’re widely available.

Many times, health research studies are looking for participants who are willing to take treatment before it’s widely released because of the potential adverse effects that may come with treatment.

Of course, experimental treatments come with risks as well as potential benefits, so it’s important to be well-informed before making any decisions.

Informed consent is a process of communication between you and the research team that ensures you understand all the risks and benefits of participating in a study before you make a decision.

If you are considering participating in a clinical trial, be sure to ask the research team about the informed consent process and make sure you understand all the risks and benefits before making a decision.

However, not all studies require any invasive procedure or medication regime to be taken. Some clinical trials, like many of the ones Evidation conducts, just require you to wear a smart wearable device such as a band, a watch, or even a ring to monitor your sleep patterns, heart rate, and oxygen levels.

5. To help ensure that future generations will enjoy good health

By participating in health research, you can help ensure that future generations will enjoy good health.

Your participation in research studies helps to generate the evidence needed to develop new treatments and preventive measures.

This is especially important for rare diseases and conditions where there is a lack of data.

Data is important in healthcare because data science and data analytics can help to predict and track patient outcomes.

However, in rare diseases, lack of data can cause the predictions of data science techniques to be less accurate and not useful.

In fact, cancer prediction outcomes are much higher in the long term, with more data collected from studies and surveys, which help data analytics in healthcare.

By participating in a study, you are directly contributing to the advancement of medical knowledge and the development of new treatments that could improve the health of future generations.

The people that come after you – your children and your children’s childrens’ generation; will thank you for it!

Final Thoughts

We hope this article has helped you learn more about the importance of participating in health research.

There are many ways to get involved, from signing up for a study to simply sharing your health data.

By participating in health research, you can directly benefit from the findings and also help contribute to making improvements for others. It’s a win-win!