Participant Information Sheet
1.Study title
Public Health Promotion by UK Osteopaths: exploring barriers, opportunities, and strategies for effective health messaging in clinical practice
2. Invitation
We would like to invite you to participate in a research study. To do so, you will need to be registered with the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) and practise in the UK. Participation will involve completing an online survey. Before you decide to participate, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. Please take the time to read the following information and discuss it with others if you wish. Feel free to email Daniel Bailey, at daniel.bailey@uco.ac.uk if there is anything that is not clear, or if you would like further information about the study.
2. What is the purpose of the study?
The aim of the study is to better understand how osteopaths engage with public health topics in clinical practice. The purpose is to help identify needs and inform training development to support the integration of public health into osteopathic care.
3. Why have I been invited?
You have been invited because you are registered with the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC).
4. Do I have to take part?
No, your involvement in this study is purely voluntary and you do not have to take part if you do not want to. You will have until the end of November 2025 to complete the survey. You can stop the survey at any time and contact the research team if you have any questions or concerns once you have submitted the survey. There is no obligation to take part in any future activities even if you complete the survey. The survey can be completed anonymously, meaning no-one, including members of the research team, will be able to identify your responses or whether you have taken part.
5. What will happen to me if I take part?
You will be invited to fill in an online survey about you and the public health topics you discuss with patients. The questionnaire will take approximately 5 minutes to complete, although you do not have to complete it all in one go.
6. What do I have to do?
If you would like to take part in the study, please follow the survey link received in the invitation email or on the social media posts.
7. What are the possible benefits of taking part?
There may be no direct personal benefits, but you will be contributing to a study that aims to help osteopaths integrate public health promotion into their clinical practice.
8. What are the possible disadvantages and risks of taking part?
There are no known risks to you from taking part in completing the survey, other than the time it will take you (approximately 5 minutes).
9. What if there is a problem?
You should contact the lead researcher, Daniel Bailey at daniel.bailey@uco.ac.uk. If you still have a problem, you should contact NCOR’s Director, Dr Jerry Draper-Rodi at jerry.draper-rodi@uco.ac.uk.
10. Will my taking part in the study remain confidential?
All the information you give us will be treated in the strictest confidence. Completed surveys will be anonymised before being analysed. All data will be stored on secure servers and only accessed by the NCOR research team. All possible steps to ensure confidentiality will be taken and any data entering the public domain (e.g. journal publications) will be reviewed to ensure identification of individual participants is impossible.
11. What will happen to the results from the study?
The data will be analysed to explore how best to develop training materials to support osteopaths engage in public health promotion with their patients. The results of the survey will eventually be disseminated through journal publications and/or presentations at conferences, but it will not be possible to identify individual participants in any of this work.
12. Who is organising the research?
The research is organised by the National Council for Osteopathic Research (NCOR) and the study was approved by Health Sciences University (HSU) Research Ethics Committee.
Thank you for taking the time to read the participant information sheet.