The Health Tracking Network is now closed. Click on "Results" above for the project's results.
Background and goals of the Health Tracking Network
Q. What are the goals of the Health Tracking Network?
Q. When did the Health Tracking Network begin?
Q. Who runs the Health Tracking Network?
Q. Who provides the financial support for the Health Tracking Network?
Q. Why is so little known about how the common cold, influenza, and stomach flu spread and how to prevent them?
Registering, logging in, and managing your account
Q. When I try to register, I get an error message that says I need to confirm all the statements for registration, even though I did. How can I register?
Q. Why won't you send my password or login name to me if I forget it?
Q. Why is it so important that members be anonymous?
Q. What is the relationship between the Health Tracking Network and the password manager and e-mail reminder services?
Symptom Updates
Q. Should I visit the site even if I don't have any symptoms?
Q. What is the purpose of the Symptom Updates?
Q. How often do I complete a Symptom Update?
Q. What time period do the questions in a Symptom Update refer to?
One-Minute Surveys
Q. What is the purpose of the One-Minute Surveys?
Q. How often do I complete a One-Minute Survey?
Q. What are the questions in One-Minute Surveys about?
Q. What is the difference between a linked and an unlinked One-Minute Survey?
Q. How can I tell whether a One-Minute Survey is linked or unlinked?
Q. What should I do if I don't know or don't want to give an answer to an unlinked One-Minute Survey question?
Trackers (personal tracking tools)
Q. What are the different types of trackers available?
Q. Is there a limit to how many trackers I can have?
Q. What are the benefits of tracking my health and fitness?
Donations to Charity
Q. How much has the Health Tracking Network donated to charity?
Q. What is a Charity Selection Survey?
Q. How do I nominate a charity for the Charity Selection Surveys?
Q. What are the charities currently included in Charity Selection Surveys?
Q. How often do Charity Selection Surveys occur?
Q. How much money is donated to each charity?
Q. Who claims the tax deduction for the charitable donations?
Q. How can I confirm that donations were actually made to the charities?
Privacy
Q. What are all the steps you take to protect members' privacy?
Q. What can I do to help protect my privacy?
Results
Q. When and where can I find out the results from Symptom Updates and One-Minute Surveys?
Other questions
Q. What should I do if I have another question not answered here?
Background and goals of the Health Tracking Network
Q. What are the goals of the Health Tracking Network?
A. There are four goals for the Health Tracking Network: 1) discover factors related to common illnesses;
2) promote members' health by enabling them to track their personal health, fitness, and other variables easily;
3) generate donations to charities chosen by members; and
4) provide researchers access to a high-quality sample of respondents for scientific survey questions at low cost.
Q. When did the Health Tracking Network begin?
A. The Health Tracking Network went online to the public on April 28, 2011.
Q. Who runs the Health Tracking Network?
A. Interdisciplinary Scientific Research, a research and consulting firm in Seattle, runs the Health Tracking Network.
Q. Who provides the financial support for the Health Tracking Network?
A. Interdisciplinary Scientific Research provides all the financial support for the Health Tracking Network.
Q. Why is so little known about how the common cold, influenza, and stomach flu spread and how to prevent them?
A. There is little solid scientific knowledge about how these illnesses spread and how to protect against them because the necessary research has not been
done. Furthermore, in rigorous evaluations, strategies recommended by medical experts to avoid these illnesses have not consistently reduced rates of illness.
There are two kinds of studies that would greatly increase knowledge of how to prevent these illnesses. The first kind of study involves identifying sick and healthy people, and then finding, interviewing, and testing other persons with whom they came into direct or indirect contact (including those who only visited the same places). DNA tests of infected persons' viruses would show whether any study participants actually caught their particular viruses from another participant. These results would be compared with the types of contact the infected participants had with each other.
The second kind of study involves following participants over long periods of time and frequently assessing individual and other factors that might be related to illness. This is the approach used in the Health Tracking Network.
The first kind of study is best for learning how specific infections spread. The second kind of study is best for learning the most effective and practical steps that individuals can take to prevent illness.
Registering, logging in, and managing your account
Q. When I try to register, I get an error message that says I need to confirm all the
statements for registration, even though I did. How can I register?
A. If you are sure that you checked all the boxes for the registration statements, and keep getting this error message after trying again, it means that your
browser is not set to accept "session cookies". Session cookies are little bits of text that this site uses to keep track of members as they navigate through the
site. These cookies allow the site to show you information that only registered members may see and information that is specific to you. The site automatically
deletes these cookies after you log out, and your browser deletes them from your computer when you close your browser. To be able to register and
use this site, you must set your browser to accept session cookies (or cookies generally). Look in your browser's Preferences section to make this setting.
Q. Why won't you send my password or login name to me if I forget it?
A. Members are truly anonymous to us. If we had your e-mail address, you would no longer be anonymous to us. Some people use all or
part of their real names in their email addresses. Also, e-mail providers sometimes give their users' personal information to others, such
as in response to a court order.
Q. Why is it so important that members be anonymous?
A. We want to protect your privacy. One of the best ways to protect your privacy is for you not to give any information that could identify you individually.
Q. What is the relationship between the Health Tracking Network and the password manager and e-mail reminder services?
A. There is no commercial or information sharing relationship between the Health Tracking Network and these spam-free services. These services may be useful to members, and that is the only reason we recommended them.
Symptom Updates
Q. Should I visit the site even if I have no symptoms?
A. Yes, please visit the site regularly, even if you don't have any symptoms. To find the factors linked to illness, we need to know what is
happening to you both when you are healthy and when you are sick. When you visit often (daily or several times a week), you help the most by
making your information complete.
Q. What is the purpose of the Symptom Updates?
A. The Symptom Updates serve two purposes. First, your answers to the Symptom Updates are used to monitor the level of common
illnesses. See the Results for the latest summary. Second, your answers to the Symptom
Updates are one part of the data used to discover factors related to illness. It will take many months (until 2012 or later) to collect enough
Symptom Updates for the first analyses of these factors, and other factors will be studied in the future. All reports on these analyses will be posted on
the Results page.
Q. How often do I complete a Symptom Update?
A. You complete a Symptom Update every time you visit the Health Tracking Network (if it has been more than 20 hours since your last visit). If it
has been days or weeks since your last visit, it doesn't matter – a Symptom Update will be ready for you. You can complete up to 7 Symptom
Updates a week.
Q. What time period do the questions in a Symptom Update refer to?
A. All questions refer to the time since your last Symptom Update or 3 days ago, whichever is more recent. The time period for your questions will always be shown.
One-Minute Surveys
Q. What is the purpose of the One-Minute Surveys?
A. One-Minute Surveys can have different purposes. Your answers to some One-Minute surveys are used along with your answers to the Symptom Updates to discover factors related to common illnesses. Other One-Minute surveys are used to describe members' characteristics, evaluate features of the Health Tracking Network web site, and study the reliability of information gathered from Health Tracking Network surveys. Also, some One-Minute surveys are developed by other researchers who pay a small fee for the chance to ask members questions. Half of these fees is for members' donations to charities and the rest helps cover the other costs of running the Health Tracking Network.
Q. How often do I complete a One-Minute Survey?
A. A One-Minute Survey is available for you to complete each week that you visit. You can complete just one One-Minute Survey each week.
Q. What are the questions in One-Minute Surveys about?
A. Some questions are about your recent health and behavior and are repeated every week or every few weeks. Other questions are about a range of topics and are asked just once. None of the questions are about very sensitive or private aspects of your life.
Q. What is the difference between a linked and an unlinked One-Minute Survey?
A. Answers to questions in a linked survey are linked to your specific demographic information and Symptom Updates. Answers to unlinked survey questions cannot be linked in this way.
Q. How can I tell whether a One-Minute Survey is linked or unlinked?
A. The top right of each survey page shows the survey number and whether the survey is linked or unlinked.
Q. What should I do if I don't know or don't want to give an answer to an unlinked One-Minute Survey question?
A. If you don't want to answer or don't know an answer to an unlinked survey question, you usually will have the option to respond "don't know" or "prefer not to answer". If you don't know the answer for a question when there is no option to respond with "don't know", please give your best guess.
Trackers
Q. What are the different types of trackers available?
A. Many different trackers are available for health, fitness, and other variables. See the full list and index by activity and purpose (new window). If you can't find a tracker you need, let us know and we will try to create one for you.
Q. Is there a limit to how many trackers I can have?
A. No, you can have as many trackers as you want.
Q. What are the benefits of tracking my health and fitness?
A. For the benefits of tracking your health and fitness, see Improving health with personal trackers (new window).
Donations to charity
Q. How much has the Health Tracking Network donated to charity?
A. See the past donations page for the latest info.
Q. What is a Charity Selection Survey?
A. In a Charity Selection Survey, each member chooses one of several charities to receive a donation. The amount of a member's donation is based on how much he or she has participated in the Health Tracking Network recently.
Q. How do I nominate a charity for the Charity Selection Survey?
A. The charity nomination page describes how members can nominate charities.
Q. What are the charities currently included in Charity Selection Surveys?
A. Usually, there are 4 to 5 charities in a Charity Selection Survey. The charities included rotate from one survey to the next and are drawn from a
larger list.
Q. How much money is donated to each charity?
A. The amount of money donated to each charity depends on how many members select a particular charity, the number of OnTrack points those members have, and the total amount of money to be given to charity that selection round. Members who have more OnTrack points make bigger donations than members with fewer OnTrack points. Your selection cannot be canceled out by other members' selections: the charity you select receives precisely your share of the donations given.
See the Charity page for the amounts of past donations.
Q. How often do Charity Selection Surveys occur?
A. Charity Selection Surveys occur every 3 to 6 weeks, and are available for one week at a time.
Q. Who claims the tax deduction for the charitable donations?
A. All charitable donations are made in the name of the Health Tracking Network, on behalf of members. Donations are made to charities in multiple countries. Interdisciplinary Scientific Research accounts for the charitable donations as business expenses. Because donations are made on behalf of members as a whole and because members are anonymous, members cannot claim the donations as tax deductions.
Q. How can I confirm that donations were actually made to the charities?
A. See the past donations page for the receipts the charities have given for members' donations. If you want to confirm further, you may also contact the charities directly.
Privacy
Q. What are all the steps you take to protect members' anonymity and privacy?
A. First, we never collect information, such as your name or e-mail address, that could directly identify you. Second, we do not collect
very sensitive or private information about you. Third, we keep your anonymous information secure, and only release parts of it under
certain conditions to other researchers. Only those researchers who demonstrate appropriate qualifications and a legitimate scientific
interest can gain access to such data. Fourth, when we release anonymous information to other researchers, we limit the number of
members' demographic characteristics that are included and often we make such information less specific than how you reported it (such as
recording age in 15-year ranges).
Also, most of the linked surveys involve a limited and repeated set of questions asked at regular intervals. This means that we do not accumulate large amounts of diverse information about you that can be linked to you individually. This further ensures your anonymity and privacy.
Q. What can I do to help protect my privacy?
A. Keep your login name and password secure and do not share it with anyone else. Clipperz is an excellent tool for keeping your login information for the Health Tracking Network and other web sites secure.
Results
Q. When and where can I find out the results from Symptom Updates and One-Minute Surveys?
A. See the Results page. Results are posted as soon as they are available.
Other questions
Q. What should I do if I have another question not answered here?
A. If you are a member, contact us through the Messages page at Member Central. If you are not a member, go to the Contact page to ask us a question.
