Douglas – Cohort studies

Douglas is part of a clinical trial about cholesterol. His participation usually involves having his blood taken. He does not mind this as long as the medical professional is skilled as he has had some bruising in the past.

Douglas has taken part in two medical studies. The first was about migraines and lasted about three months. In the migraine study, the research team gave Douglas some medication which he believes were placebos. He also had an ECG and had to fill in a diary. After his final appointment in the migraine study, the doctor told Douglas to come back into the surgery under the pretence that they needed to repeat a test for the study. At this appointment, Douglas was told that he had experienced a heart attack. At a later date, he was invited to a study looking at cholesterol levels which he has been enrolled in for two years.

The cholesterol study is a clinical trial run by a pharmaceutical company. Being in the study involves Douglas taking medicine and attending appointments where he has blood taken and information recorded, such as his height and weight. He does not mind having blood taken if the health professional is skilled; he has had some experiences where he has been bruised by less experienced people. One of the blood test results in the study came back as having low platelet levels. This led Douglas to be referred to a hospital where he was prescribed medication.

However, Douglas became concerned about the amount of tablets he was taking. When he spoke to the research nurse in the cholesterol study about possibly leaving the research, he was told, “well we wouldn’t actually like you to do that.” Douglas says that the research team were keen to keep him enrolled in the study and it was agreed that he could stop taking the study medication. He didn’t mind that they were insistent about his participation because he wanted to help society and medical knowledge. Douglas continues to take part in the study as he would not have found out about his heart attack or low platelet levels otherwise.

Douglas is motivated to turn up to his study appointments because the tests are very thorough. He feels that “for that alone it’s worth” attending the study appointments every few months. Most of the researchers he has seen have been very good, although he could recall two who were “not as strict and accurate as they could be.” Douglas is disappointed that he does not receive detailed information about his cholesterol levels, and he was once told by a researcher that the information could not be disclosed because it was part of the study data. Regardless, Douglas is happy that he receives information about his general health and he thinks it is worthwhile to take part in medical studies. His message to others who are invited to take part in medical research is to “give it a go.”

Interview conducted in 2019.

Douglas can adjust the dates of his next follow-up appointment if needed. He is retired now but feels he could have told his work he was needing time off and this would have been fine.

Age at interview 70

Gender Male

I was two years in, I’m two years into it.

Yes.

Not, it’s not a big commitment because I can adjust the dates of it, you know, they’re far ahead so I can adjust the dates. So we can change them but because I’m now retired it’s easy, I can take time off, it doesn’t matter. But when I worked, I was in a senior position, so I said, Look, I’m doing this and that’s the end of the story and everybody said, Oka.

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Douglas chats about his general health at the check-ups he has with the research team, which he says he would not do with his GP.

Age at interview 70

Gender Male

Yes, it, the good thing about it is the fact that you’re being regularly checked and they do say, Oh because I thought I’d gained weight but they said, you’ve actually lost weight the last time we saw yo. So that was all very positive and they do get onto me for being heavier when I was really heavier and that came down and it’s still got to come down further. So it’s quite good being, having tabs kept on you because you don’t like to, the doctors are busy enough and you wouldn’t go and see your GP for a chat and just a general health thing. While if you’re on the study, the- you can have a chat to them about it more generally, so there’s beneficial. I would say that would be the main benefit if it’s a health-related study, then you can have a chat about general things, about general health things that you could say, Would this possibly affect the study because you can discuss it then and because you’re seeing them because I’m seen regularly. You know, it’ll be, it’s usually every three or four months. Either it’s a telephone call just to find out I’m fine and all the rest of it and how are things going etc, etc because they’re concerned over my general health and what’s happened to that.

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Douglas has blood samples taken for the research he is in. He has been told he is difficult to take blood samples from but he disagrees and says it is about the skills of the professional.

Age at interview 70

Gender Male

Ninety per cent of the time. There was one guy who wasn’t particularly good, and he really hurt me and but the girls are normally excellent. I said, you know, I’m a bit difficult but I don’t mind back of the hand or whatever and so they were quite good about that. I did one in, at the [hospital] and I got the consultant who did the blood and that was ’93 and he went through the vein and the whole of my arm went dark brown right along there and, you know, they said, Oh, you should go to the hospital, you know, should complain about that. And I thought, Well, it’s not worth it. it’s, my experiences of people taking blood is a competence level. If they’re good, you don’t notice. And they say, Oh your blood doesn’t flow very wel. That’s because you don’t have it in the vein correctly because my blood flows like mad.

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