FAQs - Wellbeing and WfH study

The study is exploring the personal well-being of people who do and do not currently take part in “Walking for Health” health walks.

The study involves completing two online questionnaires about your personal well-being. The two questionnaires are to be completed 12 weeks apart.

Individuals who complete both questionnaires will be entered into a prize draw to win £150 worth of High Street Gift Vouchers.

The physical benefits of walking in the countryside are well-known, but there has been much less research done into other aspects of well-being, which is what this study will explore.

By understanding these benefits, it helps us make a more effective case for continued investment in the natural environment and projects like Walking for Health.

The study is being carried out by Melissa Marselle, a PhD student from De Montfort University. The study is supervised by Katherine Irvine PhD, from De Montfort University, and Sara Warber MD, from the University of Michigan (USA).  The research is funded by De Montfort University and supported by Natural England. 

The De Montfort University Well-being and Walking for Health study has been advertised on this website.

Further information about the study is provided in the first page to the online questionnaire itself; please follow the link to the survey above. You can also contact the PhD student and her Research Supervisor using the contact details listed in the ‘Who to contact?’ section of the FAQs.

If you have any questions about this project please feel free to discuss them with the PhD researcher, Melissa Marselle, on 0116 255 1551 extension 6847, or email mmarselle@dmu.ac.uk.

You may also contact the research supervisor, Dr Katherine Irvine, on 0116 207 8711 or email kirvine@dmu.ac.uk.

Learn more about the research team by visiting the following websites:

www.iesd.dmu.ac.uk/staff/students/melissa_marselle.php for Melissa Marselle

www.iesd.dmu.ac.uk/staff/katherine_irvine.php for Katherine Irvine, PhD

www.med.umich.edu/umim/faculty/warber.htm for Sara Warber, MD

You can also download these FAQs as a Word document.

Individuals who meet the following criteria have been invited to take part in the study:

1. Have attended at least one “Walking for Health” health walk.
2. Indicated on their Outdoor Health Questionnaire (recorded on the Walking for Health Database) that he or she is happy to be contacted for evaluation purposes.
3. Gave their email address on their Outdoor Health Questionnaire.
4. Aged 18 years and above.
5. Live in England.

Yes. The study is investigating the personal well-being of people who do and do not currently take part in Walking for Health. You can take part if you have been on at least one “Walking for Health” health walk.

Yes. You can take part if you have been on at least one Walking for Health health walk.

You have been contacted because at some time in the past you attended a Walking for Health health walk in England. A Walking for Health health walk is a free group walk led by a Walk Leader.

Before you took part in your first Health Walk you were asked to complete a paper form called an Outdoor Health Questionnaire. The Outdoor Health Questionnaire asked for your contact details, health screening questions, how you found out about the walks, and so on. This information was recorded on Natural England’s Walking for Health online database by your Health Walk group.

One of the final questions on the Outdoor Health Questionnaire is whether you are happy to be contacted to ‘help us evaluate health walks’ – our records show you ticked ‘yes’.

Natural England have been working very closely with De Montfort University on this joint piece of research, which is part of Natural England’s wider evaluation programme for Walking for Health. You were therefore invited to take part based on your response on your Outdoor Health Questionnaire.

Read more about Walking for Health evaluation

Many local Walking for Health health walk schemes make use of a secure online national database which they use to help manage their schemes and to monitor and evaluate the success of their health walks.

At some point in the last few years (most likely when you first joined your walk scheme) you will have completed a short ‘Outdoor Health Questionnaire’ which asked for contact details, health screening questions, how you found out about the walks, and so on.

This information was recorded on the online database by your walk group.

Read more about the Walking for Health database.

The survey link and URL take you to the online questionnaire. An online survey website, called Qualtrics, hosts the Well-being and Walking for Health survey.

Qualtrics is a popular research suite for universities and major international brands.

• Learn more about Qualtrics

Your details are indeed securely held by Qualtrics. Qualtrics’ privacy policy complies with the U.S. and E.U. Safe Harbour Framework and the U.S. and Swiss Safe Harbour Framework regarding the collection, use and retention of personal information.

Questionnaire responses will be linked to participants’ Outdoor Health Questionnaire and walk history data held on the Walking for Health database.  This will be analysed in order to understand if there is a relationship between walker’s well-being and the number and duration of Walking for Health walks they attend.

All data will be handled in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998. The research project meets De Montfort University’s Human Research Ethics guidelines. No names or other personal details of participants will appear in any material (written, oral or otherwise) arising from the research.    

The results of this research will add to the evidence base about Walking for Health, as well as Ms. Marselle’s PhD thesis. Research findings will be shared with the public through newspaper articles, academic papers and conference presentations.

A final report about the project will be circulated to all research participants at the end of the project.

Walking for Health is a nationwide project that provides support and structure to hundreds of local walk schemes that aim to get people walking in their local area.

You might have been on a Walking for Health walk without realising it!

Your local health walk is a part of Walking for Health. It has been running since 2000. It was originally led by the Countryside Agency and its successor Natural England but from April 2012 it is hosted by the Ramblers in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support.

Read more about Walking for Health

You can search for Walking for Health walks near you using the WalkFinder. There are hundreds of walks across England, under lots of different names – you might have been on a Walking for Health walk without realising it!

De Montfort University (DMU) is an internationally recognised teaching, learning and research university located in Leicester, with a well-respected research unit in the Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development. 

• Read more about De Montfort University

Yes, the database is very secure. Your information can only be accessed by selected people from your local walk scheme, and a small number of people at the Walking for Health national centre who manage the database.

Apart from our evaluation partners, who treat your information with the utmost security and destroy it once they no longer need it, we have not and will not share your details with anyone else.

Simply click on the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of your invitation email, then tick the box requesting to be removed from the database. Your request will then be processed accordingly.

The “Unsubscribe” link is: https://umichumhs.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_eg0zACJ84Rod8hK

But don’t forget that your local health walk group uses the database too, and removing your data means they won’t be able to keep in touch with you or keep track of your walks as part of their own monitoring and evaluation.

No problem, click on the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of your invitation email and tick the box requesting to be taken off our evaluation contact list. Your request will be processed accordingly.

The Unsubscribe link is: https://umichumhs.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_eg0zACJ84Rod8hK

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