Patients and members of the public help shape our research on body measurement, shape and health. This page sets out the principles we follow and brings together trusted South Yorkshire, regional and national guidance for anyone planning involvement in this kind of research, including our collaborators and students.
Our approach. We involve patients and the public (PPI) from the earliest stages of our research, and we encourage everyone we work with to do the same. Each project decides how best to do this. Researchers new to involvement can start with the national standards below and contact us for an informal conversation.
Why it matters here. Body measurement can feel personal. People tell us that privacy, dignity, how images are stored and who sees them, and the language used about bodies all shape whether they take part. Involving people early helps studies feel safe and acceptable, and it helps us include those who are often left out of body measurement research, such as young children, people with disabilities, people living with obesity and pregnant women.
Principles we follow
- Involve people early. Talk with people who have relevant lived experience while you shape the question, the measurement session and the information you give participants.
- Involve the right people. Include the groups your study is about, including children and families where relevant, and think about who might find it hardest to take part.
- Support and pay contributors fairly. Follow national guidance on payment and expenses, and budget for involvement in your funding applications.
- Describe what changed. Record how involvement has shaped each study, and report it in papers, reports and funding applications.
- Share what you learn. We continue our own research on the acceptability of manual, 3D and 4D body measurement, and we welcome what collaborators’ involvement work finds so we can keep improving our methods, information and sessions.
National standards and guidance
- UK Standards for Public Involvement
Six standards for good involvement agreed across the UK: inclusive opportunities, working together, support and learning, governance, communications and impact. - NIHR Learning for Involvement
The NIHR’s hub of training, guides and practical resources for researchers and public contributors. - NIHR Briefing Notes for Researchers (PDF)
A step-by-step introduction to involving the public in NHS, public health and social care research. - Health Research Authority: public involvement
What public involvement is, how it differs from taking part in a study, and the HRA’s principles for meaningful involvement. - Medical Research Council: public involvement and engagement
MRC’s commitment to equitable, inclusive public and patient involvement, including its public partnerships strategy. - National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement: resources
Practical tools and guidance for engaging the public with university research.
Involving children, young people and families
- National: NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Paediatrics and Child Health: involving young people
Webinars, podcasts and guidance on involving children and young people, including in health technology development. - South Yorkshire: SCYPHeR: co-production and children’s voices
South Yorkshire Children and Young People’s Health Research treats co-production as a theme across all its work, with local examples and a mailing list for researchers. - Our work: REACH: Little Bodies, Big Voices
Our Fellowship’s co-design workshops with children aged 3 to 10 and their families, and the REACH: Big Voices Panel, inform how we run measurement sessions. Contact us to learn from this work.
Inclusive involvement
- National: Shaping Our Lives
A national network led by disabled people and service users, with guides on inclusive involvement and reaching people who are seldom heard. - National: NIHR Learning for Involvement: payments
Guidance and templates for paying and supporting public contributors, including the NIHR payment guidance for researchers and professionals (PDF). - National: Understanding Patient Data
Evidence and resources on what the public think about how health data are used. Useful when you plan how body images and measurements are stored and shared.
Regional support: Yorkshire and Humber
- NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Yorkshire and Humber: involving people
The ARC’s approach to research with and by the public, its PPIE strategy, training and involvement blogs. - NIHR Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre: patient and public involvement
The BRC’s PPIE strategy and opportunities for people to help shape research on long-term conditions.
Local support: Sheffield and South Yorkshire
- Sheffield Clinical Research Office: PPI for researchers
Run by Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and the University of Sheffield, with access to PPI panels, help setting up groups and named contacts. - NIHR Sheffield Clinical Research Facility: PPIE resources
A curated list of national standards, payment policy, training and toolkits on inclusive participation and working with community researchers.
Reporting involvement
- GRIPP2 reporting checklists
The recommended checklists for reporting patient and public involvement in research papers. Staniszewska S, et al. GRIPP2 reporting checklists: tools to improve reporting of patient and public involvement in research. BMJ 2017;358:j3453. doi:10.1136/bmj.j3453
Peer-reviewed evidence
- Review: Brett J, Staniszewska S, Mockford C, et al. Mapping the impact of patient and public involvement on health and social care research: a systematic review. Health Expectations 2014;17(5):637–50. doi:10.1111/j.1369-7625.2012.00795.x
Maps how involvement affects research at each stage, from design and recruitment to dissemination, and the conditions that help it work. - Meta-analysis: Crocker JC, Ricci-Cabello I, Parker A, et al. Impact of patient and public involvement on enrolment and retention in clinical trials: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ 2018;363:k4738. doi:10.1136/bmj.k4738
Pools trial evidence and finds that involvement modestly improves enrolment, with less certain effects on retention. - Review: Greenhalgh T, Hinton L, Finlay T, et al. Frameworks for supporting patient and public involvement in research: systematic review and co-design pilot. Health Expectations 2019;22:785–801. doi:10.1111/hex.12888
Reviews published involvement frameworks and concludes that no single framework fits every study, so teams should adapt one to their context. - Children: Sellars E, Pavarini G, Michelson D, et al. Young people’s advisory groups in health research: scoping review and mapping of practices. Archives of Disease in Childhood 2021;106(7):698–704. doi:10.1136/archdischild-2020-320452
Finds that few youth health studies report using young people’s advisory groups and proposes clearer reporting of how young people are involved. - Reporting: Staniszewska S, Simera I, Seers K, et al. GRIPP2 reporting checklists: tools to improve reporting of patient and public involvement in research. BMJ 2017;358:j3453. doi:10.1136/bmj.j3453
The recommended checklists for reporting involvement in research papers (see above).
Training
Free
- National: NIHR Learning for Involvement: a course for reviewers of health and social care research
Free, online and interactive, in three standalone modules. Written for public contributors, and useful for researchers writing funding applications. - National: NIHR INCLUDE online course
Free on the NIHR Learn platform. Covers designing research that includes groups often under-served by health research. - National: Community engagement and involvement in health research (Global Health Training Centre)
Free, NIHR-funded e-learning in seven modules, with a certificate for each module. Relevant to UK patient and public involvement as well as global health. - National: Imperial College London Patient Experience Research Centre: PPI training
A curated list of mostly free online courses, including facilitation, trauma-informed practice and involvement in data and AI research.
How we involve people in body measurement
Our own involvement and acceptability research shapes how we measure people. Families and public contributors told us that self-esteem, privacy and face visibility matter, so our 3D imaging protocols use untextured capture by default, remove faces before data are shared, and give approved researchers access only through a managed process. Sessions can be seated, supported or paused, with a parent or carer present. We review these practices as each new study and collaborator shares what its involvement work finds.
Talk to us
Please contact the Morphology Research Group to talk through involvement in body measurement research. We are happy to point you to the right local group or resource.
Last reviewed November 2026. We review this page each year.