Health Research in the Time of Covid-19: A Reflection

Abstract

I am a PhD candidate in the ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership at the University of Leicester and my research is focused on how perfectionism and self-compassion affect the health and quality of life of people living with a successful kidney transplant. In March 2020, I was in the process of designing my PhD studies and applying for ethical approval when the pandemic hit, plunging the UK into a national lockdown which Leicester, in particular, did not emerge from for over a year. I have written this article to talk about the changes that this meant I had to make to my research, both in terms of the studies that I planned and the recruitment and data collection methods I employed.My PhD consists of three studies: 1) A validation of a scale of intuitive eating for use with kidney transplant recipients; 2) A systematic review of the psychometric properties of that scale; and 3) A quantitative test of a theoretical model of perfectionism in illness within the context of kidney transplant recipients. The systematic review is the only planned study that was not affected by the pandemic; the other studies required significant changes to ensure they remained feasible.