Advertising campaign and engagement activities across Scotland contribute to over 6,500 new participants signing up for the study. Image Volunteers visiting the Generation Scotland lab Spring and summer have seen a publicity drive from Generation Scotland as they seek to recruit 20,000 new participants to the study. Advertising campaigns on television and social media, combined with several public engagement activities, have allowed Generation Scotland to gain over 6,500 new participants in their latest round of recruitment which began in January this year. These will join the 24,000 who joined the study during its first wave of recruitment between 2006 and 2011.Generation Scotland is the largest family health study in Scotland. The newly recruited volunteers are asked to answer questionnaires, provide a saliva sample for genetic analysis, and give permission for their medical records to be shared with the research team. Taken together, this will generate a “bio-resource” of data that can be used to help investigate the causes of disease and inform future treatments.A TV advertising campaign was run in June, focusing on Generation Scotland volunteers’ perspectives. The advert ran for 25 days for an average of 6 slots per day and is estimated to have been viewed 11 million times. Over 1,300 volunteers signed up after seeing the advert. 17% of TV-recruited volunteers were in the most deprived Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintile, showing that the advert reached individuals generally underrepresented in research studies. Watch the advert here (external) Image The 'Look closer at your brain' public engagement activity involved colouring and assembling a brain hat to demonstrate the position and purpose of different areas of the brain Several Generation Scotland participants volunteered to be involved in both the filming of the advert and in-house interviews that featured on the Generation Scotland media pages. Those who did so were invited to the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, where Generation Scotland are based, to visit the lab processing the submitted samples and to meet the team.In addition, the Generation Scotland team have been running public engagement activities throughout spring and summer, presenting at both the Edinburgh and Glasgow Science Festivals. The activities included ‘Look closer at your brain’ where participants could compare the sizes of brains from different ages and different animals using bags of lentils and sugar, and could cut and colour a brain hat to demonstrate the position and purpose of different areas of the brain. Generation Scotland were also hosted by the Change Mental Health Forum team at the Rural Mental Health Forum stall at the Royal Highland Show. To find out more about the study and to sign up, please see the button below. Anyone aged 12 and above and living in Scotland is welcome to join.Join Generation Scotland here. Tags 2023 Publication date 01 Sep, 2023
