Information for Participants
The findings of the Victorian Gambling Study will increase our understanding of the factors that may cause some people to gamble excessively. It will also improve our understanding of the factors that might help minimise the harm that gambling might cause to such people, their families, friends and community.
We hope this page will go some way to answering the questions you have about participating in the Victorian Gambling Study. If your contact details have changed, please fill in the update your details form on the home page.
The Victorian Gambling Study is a longitudinal study (it follows the same group of participants over time) of gambling and health in Victoria, taking place from 2009 to 2011, in three phases, each set 12 months apart. It will examine why some people gamble heavily, and why some people overcome such behaviour. To do this we need to understand the behaviours of people who gamble as well as those who don’t. A longitudinal study follows the same group of participants for several years, allowing researchers to examine changes in behaviour over time. The Victorian Gambling Study will allow researchers to examine the effect of health, life changes and economic and social factors on gambling behaviours. The Victorian Gambling Study is the first, large scale, general population, longitudinal study (it follows the same group of participants over time) of gambling conducted in Australia. The study findings will help the development of prevention and intervention activities for people whose gambling has become a problem. The findings will also help to improve treatment services for such people. You‘ll be asked to complete a telephone survey every 12 months. Some participants might also be invited to attend an extra focus group session or participate in face-to-face interviews. Each person attending an extra session will be given a voucher as thanks. The Victorian Gambling Study will follow the same participants over several years. If you’re a participant, you’re very important to this study. It’s vital that you tell us about changes to your contact details as, if we can’t contact you, we can’t survey you and we can’t put someone else in your place. Your continued involvement is vital as we are trying to understand people’s behaviour patterns regarding gambling over time. As a result, we may keep in touch via occasional emails and we ask that you check this website from time to time. While your participation is voluntary, we encourage you to participate in all waves of the study. All your individual answers will be confidential and you won’t be identified. We’re interested in the health and wellbeing of the entire Victorian community, including people who don’t gamble or those who only gamble rarely. Collecting information from non-gamblers allows us to identify the health and lifestyle differences of gamblers and non-gamblers. It also helps us to identify the effects of heavy gambling. The telephone survey will discuss:
- Your gambling practices
- Your health and well-being
- Important happenings and events in your life in the past year and
- Demographic information such as follow up contact details.
You won’t have to answer questions that make you uncomfortable and you can stop the survey at any stage. The telephone survey will take about 15-25 minutes of your time, depending on your responses to questions.
As a participant in this study, you’ll be provided with information that will give you a better understanding of gambling-related issues and gambling help services. More importantly, you’ll have given us valuable information that will help researchers gain a better understanding of why some people are heavy gamblers. This information will be used to benefit your community as well as communities worldwide. Your participation in this study is voluntary. We agree that:
- Your identity will remain anonymous.
- You can withdraw from the study at any time without prejudice.
- Your personal details and responses will be kept confidential at all times.
- You will not be identified in any way when the study findings are released publicly as results will be published in aggregate (for the group, not individuals).
- Any data from this project will be held securely on behalf of the Department of Justice for a period of seven years after all reports from the project have been released, and will then be destroyed.
You were contacted to participate in the Victorian Gambling Study because you participated in an earlier study about gambling and health. This study was conducted in 2008, and the results have now been published in A Study of Gambling in Victoria: Problem Gambling from a Public Health Perspective. During that study, you indicated that you were willing to participate in a future Victorian Government study about gambling. Participants who are concerned about issues raised because of participation in this study can contact the national Gambler’s Helpline on 1800 858 858. This is a free call, 24 hour, seven days a week, confidential counselling service. If you would like any further information about this research, or if you have any concerns or complaints about the conduct of this project, you may contact the Research Team on [email protected] or call the Study Information Line on (03) 8682 8698.
You can also address any concerns to the Justice Human Research Ethics Committee via email at [email protected] or in writing to:
The Secretary
Justice Human Research Ethics Committee
Department of Justice
21/121 Exhibition Street
Melbourne VIC 3000 |
