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Looking back in time: conducting a cohort study of the long-term effects of treatment of adolescent tall girls with synthetic hormones

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posted on 2023-05-19, 06:00 authored by Bruinsma, FJ, Rayner, JA, Alison VennAlison Venn, Pyett, P, Werther, G
Objective: Public health research is an endeavour that often involves multiple relationships, far-reaching collaborations, divergent expectations and various outcomes. Using the Tall Girls Study as a case study, this paper will present and discuss a number of methodological, ethical and legal challenges that have implications for other public health research.

Approach: The Tall Girls Study was the first study to examine the long-term health and psychosocial effects of oestrogen treatment for tall stature.

Results: In undertaking this study the research team overcame many hurdles: in maintaining collaboration with treating clinicians and with the women they had treated as girls - groups with opposing points of view and different expectations; using private practice medical records to trace women who had been patients up to forty years earlier; and exploring potential legal issues arising from the collection of data related to treatment.

Conclusions: While faced with complex challenges, the Tall Girls Study demonstrated that forward planning, ongoing dialogue between all stakeholders, transparency of processes, and the strict adherence to group-developed protocols were keys to maintaining rigour while undertaking pragmatic research.

Implications: Public health research often occurs within political and social contexts that need to be considered in the planning and conduct of studies. The quality and acceptability of research findings is enhanced when stakeholders are engaged in all aspects of the research process.

History

Publication title

BMC Public Health

Volume

11

Issue

Suppl 5

Article number

S7

Number

S7

Pagination

1-8

ISSN

1471-2458

Department/School

Menzies Institute for Medical Research

Publisher

BioMed Central Ltd.

Place of publication

United Kingdom

Rights statement

© 2011 Bruinsma et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Preventive medicine

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