Imperial College has asked your mobile network operator to identify a random selection of their customers to be invited to participate in this study. Your invitation pack was posted to you by your operator in order to maintain your confidentiality.
There are currently more than six billion users of mobile phones worldwide and in the UK there are 70 million mobile phone devices in use. It is important for current users, and for future generations, to find out whether there are any possible long-term health effects from this new and widespread technology that has become so central to our everyday lives.
You will be contributing to an important piece of research to benefit the health of current and future generations. In addition, as a small token, everyone who completes the online questionnaire by 30th June 2010 will automatically go into a prize draw to win one of 100 £25 high-street vouchers.
For full prize draw Terms and Conditions please click here.Taking part in this research is voluntary. Your decision will not affect your relationship with your mobile network operator.
If you decide to take part, please visit the UK COSMOS website at www.ukcosmos.org and click on the link to the online questionnaire. You will need your secure ID number (found on your invitation letter) to log-in, provide your consent and answer questions on your mobile phone use, health, and lifestyle. Completing the questionnaire will take you approximately 30-45 minutes. If for any reason you are unable to complete the questionnaire in one sitting you will be able to save your answers and come back to the questionnaire at a later time.
The initial phase of the study is 5 years. During this phase, we will contact you approximately once a year to update your details if you change mobile network operator or to request additional information.
We will also follow your health records for at least 20 years but you will not need to do anything other than give us your initial consent.
Please be aware that all Unique ID's (as supplied on your UK Cosmos invitation letter) are case-sensitive, and should be used exactly as they are printed. Each Unique ID follows the format [letter, number, number, number - letter, number, number, number]. Common misinterpretations involve the letters i & l and the numbers 1 & 0. If you are having any issues logging on please contact us on freephone 08000 270 270 or email ukcosmos@imperial.ac.uk for assistance.
We are aware that in certain circumstances the bill payer on a mobile contract may not actually use the mobile phone for which they are being billed (and received an invitation to take part in the study for). You can still take part in the study by entering your own mobile phone details when registering. If you do not use a mobile phone at all we would still encourage you to take part as we are studying a large cross-section of the UK population.
