Yesterday (Saturday, mind you), Heidi and I met to make phone calls to women who sent back incomplete surveys. Basically, a lot of women accidentally missed a question here or there, but the biggie was unreported weight. This is kind of a big deal for our research! I played detective and used our database to call home numbers, cell phone numbers, and alternate contact numbers. Every woman I talked to was super nice!
Since we're following these women over several years, I feel like there's some sort of "connection" with them. So, when I was on the phone with one woman yesterday I was sad to hear the reason why we didn't have her correct mailing address is because she had to move after the Christ Church earthquake. Another woman's sister explained that the participant we were trying to reach could not participate in the survey because she has terminal cancer. I felt so terrible for the participant and her family.
On the bright side, we hear from women that they enjoy our survey and are happy to participate. Yay! They even write us notes of encouragement on the survey or the return envelope, like this one here:
Needless to say, I'm just thrilled that I am here doing this research. I get a warm and fuzzy feeling opening each and every returned envelope with a completed survey inside - it gets me one step closer to having data to analyze to get us one step closer to a kick a$$ weight gain prevention intervention.
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