Can I Participate?
To participate, you have to meet the following three criteria:
1. You have to be at least 18 years old.
2. You have to live temporarily or permanently in the U.S. while participating in the study.
3. You need a Facebook account.
That's it.
If you are a researcher or developer you can find more information about how to contribute questionnaires or access study data here.
The Facebook App
The study is run through a Facebook App. If you already have a Facebook account, simply click here and follow the instructions.
If you don't have a Facebook account, you need to get one to join the study. You don't have to actually do anything on Facebook and -- don't worry -- Facebook doesn't see any of the information you provide us through the App.
What Does A Participant Do?
The first step is to log into the App and read the study information and -- if you agree with our study plan -- consent. If you participate, you can provide information about your health and behavior by answering surveys. Once you complete a specified number, you become eligible to volunteer saliva through the mail. At the moment, due to extremely high interest, we currently have a waitlist for participants who would like to provide a sample. You can still participate in the surveys and see summaries of your survey responses.
The Health Surveys
We will ask you to complete questionnaires related to many aspects of your life, including your health, habits, attitudes, and relationships. There are two types of assessments: one-time Health History Surveys to be answered once, and very short Health Tracking Surveys to be answered daily or weekly.
Health History Surveys are critical to provide baseline information about your health up to the present. Health Tracking Surveys provide detailed information about how your health and behavior changes over time.
The Spit Kit
As you complete Health History and Health Tracking Surveys, your information will be entered into a research database where it can help us understand the links between different aspects of health, behavior and environment. Our goal is to combine these data with genetic information to truly accelerate and extend health research. In our initial round of genetic analysis, we focus on participants who have completed the majority of their Health History Surveys and have completed Health Tracking Surveys across several different days. (At the time of this writing you must complete 15 Health History Surveys and 20 Health Tracking Surveys to be eligible for the waitlist, although this is subject to change as more surveys become available.)
Providing a saliva sample is completely voluntary. To collect your sample Genes for Good will send you a spit kit free of charge with a return mailing envelope. We will obtain genetic information (DNA) from this sample for research. The DNA will be frozen and stored indefinitely in a secure laboratory that is supervised by the researchers.
Continue Participating!
After providing that saliva sample, we strongly encourage you to continue using the App. Answering new surveys as they become available, as well as providing more information by filling out the Health Tracking Surveys regularly will help research. In addition, you can use the long-term data to monitor and modify your physical activity, alcohol use, and sleep, and to compare yourself to other participants.