Participant Experiences in a Human Biomonitoring Study: Follow-Up Interviews with Participants of the Flemish Environment and Health Study

• Published in: Toxics (Basel) Vol. 9; no. 4; p. 69
• Main Authors: Morrens, Bert, Jonker, Hans, Den Hond, Elly, Coertjens, Dries, Colles, Ann, Schoeters, Greet, Van Larebeke, Nicolas, Nawrot, Tim, Covaci, Adrian, Nelen, Vera, Vandermoere, Frédéric, Loots, Ilse
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 28-03-2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Biomarkers; Biomonitoring; Communication; Environmental health; Ethics; Health risk assessment; Health risks; human biomonitoring; Information processing; participant experiences; Pollutants; report-back; research participation; risk communication; Surveillance; Values; Belgium; United States > US; research participation; report-back; environmental health; human biomonitoring; risk communication; participant experiences
• ISSN: 2305-6304; 2305-6304
• DOI: 10.3390/toxics9040069

Communicating individual human biomonitoring results to study participants has been the subject of debate for some time. This debate is dominated by ethical considerations from a researchers' perspective on whether or not to communicate, thereby overlooking more practice-based questions from a participants' perspective on what and how to communicate. We conducted a small scale follow-up study based on eleven face-to-face interviews with mothers participating in the third cycle of the Flemish Environment and Health Study (FLEHS III 2012-2015) to investigate how they experienced and interpreted individual biomonitoring results. Key findings indicate that respondents were generally satisfied with participating in the biomonitoring study, but the report-back process especially lacked contextualized information and interactive communication options to better comprehend and cope with personal results. These findings also argue in favor of a more tailored approach in which report-back methods, formats and content are diversified according to the type of results and the preferences of participants. A reflexive research practice with active engagement in follow-up research is crucial to improve participants' understanding and use of personal biomonitoring results.