PADIA: PARENTS' ATTITUDES TO DIETARY INTERVENTIONS IN ASD

PADIA: PARENTS’ ATTITUDES TO DIETARY INTERVENTIONS IN ASD
PARENT INFORMATION SHEET

You are invited to take part in a survey. This information will help you understand what the survey involves and why it is being done. Before you decide to take part please read this information carefully and discuss with others if necessary. Please don’t hesitate to contact us by phone or email if you have any queries or if you would like more information about the survey. Our contact details are the end of this information sheet.

What is the purpose of the survey?
We would like to find out about your opinions and experiences of autism research and your attitudes to the use of the gluten and casein free diet. We are also asking child health professionals, who provide services to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), to complete a similar survey. The results of these surveys for parents and professionals will help us plan the design of UK research studies into biomedical and complementary and alternative therapies for children with ASD.

Who is taking part?
You are being invited to take part because you have a preschool or primary school aged child with a diagnosed ASD.

Do I have to take part?
Participation in this study is entirely up to you.  If you decide not to take part, this will not affect your child’s care in any way

What will happen if I take part?
If you are interested in taking part, we will ask you to complete a questionnaire about your thoughts about autism research and any interventions you may have tried, including complementary and alternative therapies. We would like you to take part even if you have not used the gluten and casein free diet.

We will also ask some extra questions about your family (e.g. where in the UK you live); this information will help compare findings from families across the UK.

What are the possible disadvantages and risks of taking part?
We do not anticipate any negative effects for you if you participate in this study. There are 57 questions which are easy to answer and will take approximately 25-30 minutes to complete.

What are the possible benefits of taking part?
There are no direct benefits to the families taking part in this study. We do want as many parents and professionals to take part as possible as this will help us understand more about attitudes to dietary interventions and research in autism and will also help us plan our future research.
Everyone who takes part will receive a newsletter summarising the findings of the survey questionnaires at the end of the study.

All participants can also choose to be entered into a free prize draw to win a laptop.

Who will know about my participation?
We will ensure that your participation is entirely confidential. Only the research team will know that you have taken part and will have access to the results. When the research is published there will be no way of identifying who took part in the survey.

What happens next?
Fill out the following information and we’ll send you a letter of invitation, a copy of this information sheet, and the link to the survey.

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact:
Ann Le Couteur, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 0191 282 1384