Pain and sensation help

Your questionnaire and the web link to it that we have sent to you by email are specific to you; this is so that we can add the data from the questionnaire to other data that you have provided previously. This means that it is very important that your questionnaire is only completed by you. Sometimes participants share email addresses or devices with other members of their household, and this has led to questionnaires being completed by someone other than the intended recipient. We use your date of birth to double-check that the questionnaire has been completed by the correct person before releasing the data to researchers. We need to ask for your full date of birth because a partial date of birth may not distinguish you from someone you share an email address or device with (if you both have the same month and year of birth).  

We ask you to complete an identity check each time you start the questionnaire in case an error was made the first time or in case someone else (e.g. someone you share an email address with) started or attempts to complete your questionnaire.  

If you realise that you have completed a questionnaire intended for another UK Biobank participant (for example, someone who shares an email address with you), please let our Participant Resource Centre know by calling 0800 0 276 276 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm). 

Because of the global interest in the work of UK Biobank, questionnaires developed for UK Biobank are shared with researchers around the world for use in their own research. So that researchers can choose which sets of questions they ask in their research studies (rather than having to use a full UK Biobank questionnaire), the questionnaires are split up into sections (modules).  

This is the way that our online questionnaires are designed. You have to click the ‘Save/continue’ button at the bottom of each page to ensure that your answers on that page are saved. If you go back to the previous page without having clicked this button, your answers on the current page will not be saved and you will need to enter the information again. 

We provide a comments box at the end of the questionnaire for you to provide us with extra information if you would like to do so. If an issue comes up that you would like to comment on as you are working through the questionnaire, please make a note of it and include it in the comments box at the end. Please note, however, that any comments you leave will not be systematically reviewed. If you would like to tell us something that requires our immediate attention or action, please call our Participant Resource Centre on 0800 0 276 276 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm). 

Please click on the ‘Show question numbers’ button (situated towards the bottom of the page, after the block of questions) to display the question numbers. 

Please open the section and then simply click ‘Save/continue’.  

Please check that you are using the correct personal details and Participant ID (this can be found on most pieces of correspondence that we send to you). Please make sure that you are using the first letter of your surname rather than that of your first name. If you are still unsuccessful, please contact our Participant Resource Centre at ukbiobank@ukbiobank.ac.uk or on 0800 0 276 276.  

In order for the questionnaire to be marked as ‘finished’ by our systems, every section of the questionnaire - including the final section, which is called the ‘End page’ - must be marked as complete. It is possible that this has not been done, so we advise that you return to the questionnaire and check this. Even if you don’t add any comments on the ‘End page’, you will need to click ‘Save/continue’.  Alternatively, you might have accidentally completed the questionnaire belonging to another UK Biobank participant with whom you share an email address (for example, your spouse or partner). Please double-check that you have used the correct web link that is unique to you, which was included in the email which we addressed specifically to you.  

We are not able to provide participants with a copy of the questionnaire. However, this will be available on the Showcase section of our website once the questionnaire data have been released to researchers (https://biobank.ndph.ox.ac.uk/showcase/). 

Yes please. Our current understanding of the risk factors for pain is poor and understanding what makes people more or less likely to feel pain can only be achieved by asking people who are not experiencing pain as well as those who are not.

Please only respond yes if a doctor has confirmed you have the condition.

By asking about pain in both feet researchers can understand if there is a symmetrical pattern to discomfort, which can sometimes suggest systemic issues rather than isolated injuries or conditions.