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Forty years ago, 121 700 US nurses responded to the call of the Nurses' Health Study (NHS). In other articles of the issue we provide statistics about the extraordinary commitment and fidelity that these nurses demonstrated toward this pioneer cohort study. To translate these statistics into words we present here a set of testimonies from APHA members who participated in theNHS.Someofthem belonged to the original NHS, some are daughters of nurses of the original NHS who joined the NHS II, and some have children enrolled in the offspring cohort named Growing Up Today Study (GUTS). They reveal the fabulous human dimension underlying this successful epidemiological study.
Patricia J. Kelly, PhD, MPH, APRN, Professor, School of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of MissouriKansas City, and Chair of the Pubic Health Nursing Section of the APHA, sent the following e-mail to the nurse members of the Section:
To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Nurses' Health Study, Dr. Alfredo Morabia, MD, PhD, Editor of the American Journal of Public Health, would like to hear about experiences of nurses who have participated in the study. He is particularly interested in hearing about why nurses volunteered, what their experiences were, and what their feelings about the findings have been.
Here are snippets of the answers received (in alphabetic order of first names.)
MOTHER AND TWO DAUGHTERS PARTICIPATED
I have been part of the Nurses II study group. My mother and my 2 daughters have also participated. I was invited to participate when I was in graduate school, and knowing howharditistorecruit participants I volunteered. I thoughtitwasclevertoinvite nurses who would probably have a better health history recall to be in the study. I have enjoyed reading the variety of results that have been generated. - Cynthia, Indianapolis, IN
I VIEW THE FINDINGS AS SUSPECT
Hello, I have been a participant in the first nurses ' study since the beginning. I choose to participate since I felt that my participation would contribute to the nation's knowledge of health risk behaviors and health outcomes. First of all, many of the initial surveys asked for information which could only be answered prospectively, e.g. about diet when you were growing up, health behaviors practiced during childhood, etc. The answers I gave,...