In the UK around 1 in 5 people have low levels of vitamin D. This can have important consequences because vitamin D is essential for bone health, and low levels can lead to bone problems such as osteoporosis and osteomalacia. Vitamin D is needed for everyone at all stages of life, from newborns and childhood, to adolescence, adulthood, and old age – which I find very exciting and fascinating. Being interested in paediatrics, endocrinology and neurology, and considering following a clinical academic path in the future, I decided to pursue a research project in vitamin D for my Specialty choice placement (SCP).
Vitamin D deficiency
Over the past few weeks I have been working with Dr Tanna, a consultant pharmacist, and Prof Blair, a consultant paediatrician with an interest in public health, on a research project about vitamin D aiming to understand the knowledge, attitudes and practices of people living in the UK. In the UK vitamin D deficiency is very common, and therefore the NHS recommends taking regular vitamin D supplements. However, national surveys have shown that only a minority of the UK population is actually taking supplements. One reason for this could be that vitamin D supplements are not freely available on the NHS for everyone, meaning that most people have to pay to get them. In addition, people might not be aware of the health benefits of vitamin D, or they might think they do not need supplements themselves. Understanding what people know and think about vitamin D is therefore important in order to decide on further strategies to increase the intake of vitamin D.
My contribution to a larger research project:
During my SCP I have been working on a questionnaire that will hopefully be used as part of a larger research project on the knowledge, perceptions and practices of the UK population on vitamin D. At the start of my SCP, I worked to further develop a questionnaire that two other students Aakriti and Sundar had created. Aakriti and Sundar had also done a literature review on vitamin D and had collated everything that they had found on a word document. In my first meeting with Dr Tanna I was not really convinced that developing a questionnaire was something that was going to take a lot of time. It seemed that I had forgotten one of the first pieces of advice that we had been given during our BSc year; to always allow for more time than we think that we will need when getting involved in research.
I started by reading the literature review by Aakriti and Sundar, which was really helpful, as it enabled me to understand the background of the project. I then started editing the questionnaire by grouping together all the questions in a logical order, finding questions that could be removed to make the questionnaire shorter and reviewing the wording of some questions to make sure they were appropriately phrased and understandable to the wider public. I tried to stick to the advice I got from my supervisors to keep the language very simple and understandable – Prof Blair mentioned that most public information websites (such as NHS advice, or gov.co.uk) are aiming to use language that is comprehensible by an 11-year old, a fact I found surprising if not shocking!
Once I had a version of the questionnaire ready on an online format, I piloted this on different individuals and finalised the questionnaire. This made me appreciate how important piloting is: if you want to create a good survey addressed at a wide public audience you need to take the opinions of people from different backgrounds, both medical and non-medical, as their understanding of the questions might be a bit different to yours.
I have really enjoyed working on the vitamin D research project! Overall, what I most liked in my research experience is seeing that research is a discussion, with every member contributing something different and of value to the project. I really hope that once my SCP is completed, I will still be able to stay on board of the team, as I would really like to contribute in the development and realisation of this project.
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