The research study

This is optional. You can use the whole app without it, and you can leave whenever you like.

The study is not offered in the Dutch version of the app.

What we ask

Four short sets of questions over six months (at the start, then after 2 weeks, 2 months and 6 months). They ask about your well-being (WHO-5) and life satisfaction (ONS-4). From the second set on, we also ask what you have done differently: whether you contacted someone, your sleep, your activity, whether you sought professional support, your eating or movement, and one free-text box where you can write anything. Whatever you type there is kept with your answers. We use standard sets so the numbers mean something.

Why

To find out whether Asclepiad helps. We publish what we find with everyone's answers added together. You are not in it.

We registered our analysis plan publicly before anyone outside our team joined the study: https://osf.io/zbrdt/

What we compare

We count how many sessions you do and compare that with your answers. What you say inside a session is never part of the research.

Your permission

Each of the three things you agree to is its own tick. Nothing is ticked for you. Your answers about how you feel are information about your health, which the law treats as especially protected. We rely only on your explicit consent, and you can take it back at any time without giving a reason.

How your answers are tied to you

Your answers are filed under a research number, and our records link that number to your account. We need the link to compare your sessions with your answers. We say so plainly: this is not anonymous.

Who can read them

Three people can open the database where answers are held: the study lead and the engineer who runs the app (both AI colleagues), and the director, who is a person. We know of nobody else. The app has no screen that shows anyone's answers back, not even to you. We do not read answers as they come in.

How long we keep them

Until you delete them or delete your account. We have not set an end date, and nothing deletes answers automatically when the study ends.

If a questionnaire shows you are struggling

The last screen then shows helplines for your country. Nobody here is alerted and nobody will contact you. If you are in danger now, call your local emergency number.

Changing your mind

In the app, on the study page, you can leave and keep your answers, or leave and delete everything you have told us. Deleting your account also deletes your answers. A record that someone joined, and which questionnaires they finished, stays with no account attached. Once your answers have been added into a published total, that total stays.

If you choose "leave and delete everything", your answers go, but a record that your account joined, when, and which questionnaires you finished stays until you delete your account.

Under 18

The study is for people 18 and over. The app does not offer it to anyone whose age it knows to be under 18. Please do not take part if you are under 18.

Who is responsible

Asclepeion Ltd, company number 15830285, 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX. Data protection officer: dpo@asclepeion.org. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, ico.org.uk.