Gemini COVID-19 study information
We hope you and your family are all well. We would like to start by thanking you for your continued participation in Gemini, and for taking part in the first half of the COVID-19 Home Environment study last year.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has meant big and sudden changes to how we all live our lives. We are interested in learning about how families have responded to these changes, and to explore the impact of COVID-19 restrictions and ‘lockdown’ on family life, daily activities, and the home environment. We hope that this will improve our understanding of how the pandemic has affected the Gemini twins and their families.
We are getting in touch again now because we are interested in learning about how families are continuing to deal with the ongoing effects of the pandemic. We specifically want to explore the impact of the 2021 national lockdown on family life, daily activities and the home environment. We hope that this will improve our understanding of how the pandemic has affected the Gemini twins and their families.
If you would like to learn a bit more about the study, we have created an infographic. Click here to view the infographic.
What will this new study involve?
Telephone Interview
Similar to last time, we would like to collect information about the impact of COVID-19 on family life, by inviting you to complete another telephone interview. This interview should take under an hour to complete.
If you are happy to take part, you can book a time slot with either of our researchers (Karima or Alice) using the links below. Click on the links to see all the available time slot and to book a time and date that is best for you.
We appreciate that you might be very busy and unable to take part right away. We have made time slots available until end of June 2021 so please do choose a time that fits in with your schedule. If none of the available options are suitable, please do get in contact via email (gemini@ucl.ac.uk) and we will do our best to find a convenient time to call you.
If you have booked a timeslot but need to re-arrange, you can do so easily online by choosing a new time and date that works for you. Alternatively, you can get in contact via email (gemini@ucl.ac.uk) and we will re-arrange the interview date for you.
Twin questionnaire
We would also like to hear directly from your twins again about their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will ask your twins to tell us about their eating, sleeping and activity habits, their experiences of schooling during the pandemic, their social connections, and their physical and mental wellbeing.
If you would like to view the twin questionnaire and see the questions we will be asking the children, please click here to view the questionnaire in full. If you would like to learn a bit more about the study, we have created an infographic. Click here to view the infographic. Once you have booked in for your home environment interview, we will send you an email to confirm the time/date of the interview and in this email we will provide you with a link for both your twins to access the online questionnaire directly.
Alternatively, both your twins can access the online questionnaire here:
The questionnaire should be completed by each twin separately. Please ask your twins to enter your Gemini ID number when prompted. If possible, it is best to do the whole study in a single session. If this is not possible or the session is interrupted, it is possible to log in again later.
Rewards for taking part
To say thank you to you and your twins for taking part, we will send you (by email) a £20 electronic shopping voucher. You will be able to provide your email for the voucher when you complete the telephone interview.
What will happen to the results of the research project?
As we have done every year since the study began, we will send you an annual newsletter informing you about the progress and results of the study. We will also include summaries of the findings on the Gemini website (www.geministudy.co.uk or www.geministudy.com), via the Gemini Twitter account (@GeminiResearch), and via the new Gemini Facebook page (Gemini - Health and Development in Twins). We will also present results at conferences and publish them in scientific journals.
Will our participation in this study be kept confidential?
Yes. All the information that we collect about you and your twins during the course of the research will be kept strictly confidential. The information you provide will be stored in a pseudonymised format using your participant ID numbers (separate from your name and contact details), on a secure server at UCL. It will not be possible to identify any individual (parent or child) from the data, or in any ensuing reports or publications.
Confidentiality will be respected subject to legal constraints and professional guidelines. For more information please read our Data Protection Privacy Policy.
Who is organising and funding the research?
This research is funded by the Economic Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the wider UK Research & Innovation’s rapid response to COVID-19 (ES/V005006/1). To satisfy research council requirements, we will be sharing pseudo-anonymised data with other researchers to support and contribute to future research projects.
The research is led by the Principal Investigator, Dr Alison Fildes and Co-Principal Investigator, Dr Andrea Smith.
Contact information
If you have any queries about the study, please contact the lead researcher on this project Alice Kininmonth [a.kininmonth@ucl.ac.uk].
If you have concerns about this research, please contact Dr Alison Fildes [a.fildes@leeds.ac.uk].
All proposals for research using people are reviewed by an ethics committee before they can proceed. This study has been approved by the UCL Research Ethics Committee (Project ID Number: 1624/004). Should you wish to take your matter further you can contact the Chair of the UCL Research Ethics Committee [ethics@ucl.ac.uk].
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