Participation
NJHealth Study FAQ’s
1. What is the New Jersey Health (NJHealth) Study?
NJHealth is the most comprehensive study to date investigating the connection of stress to mental and physical health over the course of our lifetimes. It is recruiting 8,000 New Jerseyans to examine the effects of many possible sources of stress experienced by diverse population groups. NJHealth is designed to identify why some people are more resilient when experiencing stress than others, and what public policies may amplify or buffer the impact of stress on health. By periodically measuring outcomes over time, the study will facilitate rigorous evaluation of the impact of planned interventions, evolving policies, and even potential environmental shocks on population health and wellbeing.
2. Why New Jersey?
As one of the most diverse states in the nation, New Jersey offers the context to discover how people from widely differing backgrounds and circumstances respond to stress. Further, New Jersey is an exceptional place to explore the role of immigration experiences as a driver of stress and resilience because of our dynamic patterns of immigration from around the globe. New Jersey also offers a unique opportunity in the US to link study data with records available from health services, employment, and social service programs to inform policymaking. With this study, New Jersey will emerge as a national leader in exploring critical population health issues.
3. How will NJHealth help New Jersey communities?
NJHealth is conducted in collaboration with a Community Advisory Board and community organizations. These partners help guide how we disseminate NJHealth findings and optimize the study’s value to participants and their communities. NJHealth findings will be shared broadly and summarized in brief, non-technical formats that community organizations can use to guide program planning and develop compelling funding requests.
4. What data are collected in NJHealth?
NJHealth combines in-depth interviews of 8,000 participants with measures of physical activity and sleep quality from devices like Fitbits™; data from health services, employment, and social services programs; and measures assessing community environments. Biological measures from DNA and blood are also collected from consenting participants to identify evidence of chronic stress exposures and to detect who is at high risk of stress-related health conditions such as early declines in cognitive function, poor mental health outcomes, and physical illnesses such as heart disease.
5. How is NJHealth different from other studies?
NJHealth is unique in several important ways. First, it is a New Jersey study! There has never been a study like NJHealth in the state. Second, NJHealth includes a broader scope and more refined measures of stressors than any other prior study. Third, NJHealth includes one of the most diverse populations ever to participate in a study of stress and health – overall 8,000 New Jerseyans will participate, about half will be from immigrant communities.
6. How is NJHealth funded?
Study design and the collection of the first round of NJHealth data is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the State of New Jersey. Additional funds are provided by Rutgers Health.
7. How will NJHealth be supported in the long-term?
NJHealth will grow more valuable as participants are followed over time. Current funding is supporting the first round of data collection, but additional funds will be needed to sustain the study. The NJHealth study team is working to raise funds from the National Institutes of Health, private foundations, and other government sources.
8. How will NJHealth contribute to scientific knowledge about stress and health?
Building on social scientific theories, NJHealth is generating actionable new knowledge for improving health and wellbeing in a society undergoing rapid changes, particularly among understudied groups including people in multi-generational families, immigrants, people of color, and low-income families. Unlike prior research, NJHealth focuses on both individual and societal stressors. Individual stressors can range from common life events such as having children or losing a spouse to chronic stressors such as experiences of maltreatment in childhood or exposures to racial discrimination. Societal stressors such as the rapidly evolving effects of social media, political polarization, and the implications of climate change are especially understudied.
9. How will NJHealth advance the science at Rutgers?
The NJHealth study is a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration among Rutgers investigators from multiple schools and disciplines, including the social sciences, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and public policy and public health sciences. Investigators from across Rutgers units are collaborating on grant proposals building on NJHealth data to the National Institutes of Health and other funding sources. NJHealth is also advancing Rutgers educational mission by engaging students and postdoctoral fellows in addressing pressing challenges related to stress, health, and social equity.
10. How will the participant privacy and confidentiality be assured?
Each study participant receives detailed information about the study before they enroll thorough an informed consent process. Data collected from study participants are completely confidential. The study team never shares participant names or identifying information with others. All information is saved in databases with multiple levels of security and restricted access. Only statistical summaries of study results are released publicly. Study procedures are reviewed by an Institutional Review Board, an independent committee responsible for monitoring the ethical conduct of research among human subjects.
11. Who is leading NJHealth?
NJHealth is led by an interdisciplinary team of Rutgers investigators. Joel Cantor, distinguished professor of public policy and director of the Center for State Health Policy is the study’s principal investigator. He works closely with a study leadership team that includes senior faculty from the Rutgers School of Public Health, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and the Department of Sociology.
12. How can I learn more about NJHealth?
How can I learn more about NJHealth? More information about NJHealth is available at https://njhealthstudy.rutgers.edu/en or by writing to NJCohort@ifh.rutgers.edu. Dr. Cantor, the study principal investigator, can be reached at jcantor@ifh.rutgers.edu