COVID-19 Studies

Take 1 minute each day and help fight the outbreak. Researchers from King’s College London have created an app to enable people to report COVID-19 symptoms on a daily basis. The app will be used to study the symptoms of COVID-19 and track the spread of this virus throughout the UK. You can help by using the app to report on your health every day.

PLEASE NOTE: The app does not provide clinical advice and you must visit the NHS website for all advice on Coronavirus. You can download the app by visiting the dedicated website, where you will find more information, or directly from the Apple Store or on Google Play, depending on your devices.

Phase 1

Researchers at Cardiff Metropolitan and Cardiff University launched a survey in March to find out about the experiences of people living in the UK during the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The study is led by Dr Rhiannon Phillips, a health psychologist and health services researcher based at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Here’s what she had to say about the response from HealthWise Wales participants.

“The baseline survey is now closed, and our final numbers are in - 8,730 completions by HWW participants, which is absolutely amazing. Our team would like to thank everyone who has taken part in this study. The data will be incredibly useful in understanding how the pandemic is impacting on different people, how people feel about the government and health services’ response to the pandemic, and what further information and support people need. We will be analysing the data and sharing our findings with you as soon as possible. We’re also looking forward to catching up with many of you over the coming year to find out more about your experiences.”

Phase 2

A follow-up survey has now been sent to those who took part in the first phase of this study and the response from HWW participants has been fantastic once again with 6,381 HWW participants taking part.

'The HWW participant response rates are absolutely great! This is a huge achievement for our team and I wanted to thank everyone for taking part. We’re now working with the data and can see that the pandemic has impacted on people’s lives and well-being in a whole range of different ways depending on their own personal circumstances. Relationships with loved ones and the desire to help others are things that have been particularly important in influencing how people have responded to this crisis.’

The next phase of this study is due to start in Spring 2021 to look at the effects of the pandemic one year on.

HealthWise Wales recently contacted participants to promote an online questionnaire developed by researchers in the School of Healthcare Sciences at Cardiff University, aiming to assess what people think, feel and are doing to manage the threat of COVID-19. The researchers hope to use the questionnaire data to develop new guidelines to support people’s health and well-being and to help them to cope better with the threat of COVID-19. Findings from this survey could also identify common coping methods and ways that may motivate people to maintain or adopt healthy behaviours and avoid unhealthy living.

The initial survey has now closed having received 6,079 responses from HWW participants. Thank you very much to all those who took part! These participants may also be asked in 3-6 months to complete a further questionnaire to compare their answers and see how things have changed over time.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to what is referred to as ‘lockdown’ measures that severely limit people’s movement and social interaction. As we move towards lessening those restrictions, there is a need to track and control the spread of the infection. One approach being proposed is mobile phone-based contact tracing via a downloadable app.

Researchers at Swansea University recently collaborated with HealthWise Wales to seek citizens’ views on the launch of Covid-19 related contact tracing app(s) in Wales. These are apps to allow the movements of people with symptoms of COVID-19 to be traced so that people they have come into contact with can be informed about possible risks to themselves.

HealthWise Wales participants responded fantastically to this request for their opinions with 971 responding, smashing the target of 150+ that had been set by the researchers. Many participants also agreed to take part in the second part of this research which will include more detailed group discussions on contact tracing and the uses of data relating to COVID-19.

This is a brief summary report to provide the main findings of the survey.