Food Work Research Study

Your participation in the study will involve the following things:

• Calling the study contact phone number or visiting a confidential website to answer a few questions about yourself that will let us know if you are eligible for the study. This will take about 5-7 minutes. 
  
  
• Completing a brief phone call with a member of the study team to confirm that you are eligible, to review the study information sheet together, and to answer any questions you have before deciding whether you want to participate. If you decide to participate, you will then schedule a time for the interview. This phone call will take about 15 minutes.
  
  
• Completing one interview with the research team by phone or a videoconferencing tool called Zoom. This interview will last up to 90 minutes. This interview will also be recorded by the study team so we are able to go back and listen later for the main information shared by participants

All parts of this study will be done over the phone, email, or online. The total time to participate in this study will be between 1.5 and 2 hours.

There are a couple of small risks of participating in this study. These include:

• A possible loss of confidentiality (please see the section titled, ‘How will my information be protected?’ to see how the research team is minimizing this risk).
• Feeling uncomfortable answering interview questions.

You will not receive any direct benefit from taking part in this study, but we hope to learn things that could help improve employment conditions for food workers in the future.

All research includes at least a small risk of loss of confidentiality. However,  the research team will be following guidelines to keep your personal information confidential.

• The information you provide on your survey, like your name and contact information, is stored in a secure system that only members of our research team can see. This information will only be used to see if you are eligible for the study and to contact you about
  
  
• The member of the research team who will interview you will make sure they have physical privacy to complete the interview. You are also encouraged to schedule an interview time when you will have physical privacy.
  
  
• Your interview recording and the written version of your interview (referred to as a transcript) will not be connected to your personal information. Instead of labeling the interview recording and transcript with your name, we will label it with an ID number. Any personal information you provide during the interview, like names or other things that could identify you or others, will be removed from the transcript.
  
  
• Recordings, transcripts, and other study information will also be stored in a secure location separate from your survey, and only members of the study team will be able to access it. Interview recordings will be destroyed after the study is complete.
  
  
• Any reports that are published from the study will not include personal information from any participants.
  
  
• Data from this study may help other researchers in the future who are working on the topic of work and health. For participants who give their permission, we will provide a limited set of study data to future researchers through the Qualitative Data Repository at Syracuse University. This limited set of data will include information that describes participants, like age and gender, along with parts of your interview such as some direct quotations of words you shared. It will not include any information that could identify you or others, such as your name or the name of your employer. At the end of your interview, you will be asked whether you give permission to share your study data with future researchers or not. The choice is yours, and it will not affect your participation in this study in any way.

All this being said, it is important that you know we cannot guarantee absolute confidentiality. For example, your personal information may be disclosed if it is required by law.

Organizations that could look at the research records for quality assurance and data analysis include the individuals leading this study and the study team, the Indiana University Institutional Review Board or its designees, the National Institute on Aging, which provided the money to do the study, the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP). In rare cases, additional state or federal agencies may need to access your research records as allowed by law.

You will receive a $40 gift card for your time in completing the study interview. If you decide you do not want to continue your participation in the study before you complete the full interview, you will not receive the gift card. We will email or mail this gift card to you within two weeks of completing the interview.

Additionally, you will receive a $20 gift card if you refer another participant who is eligible and completes the study interview.