CDC invites former SEED participants to take follow-up survey; participant says responses are private and pay $20

A meeting participant who said they and their family took part in the original SEED study reported receiving an email from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) inviting former SEED participants to complete a follow-up survey about how autistic people fare as they grow older.

The participant said the follow-up — described in the email as the “seed follow up” study and sponsored by the CDC — asks about work, school and recreational activities. "They have a survey with questions about work school and things I do for fun," the meeting participant said.

According to the participant, the email emphasizes confidentiality and voluntary response: "Some questions might be kind of personal, but it says that everything I share will be kept private and I can skip any questions I don't want to answer," they said. The participant said the survey takes about 40 minutes and that respondents are offered a $20 gift card on completion: "It takes about 40 minutes and I'll get a $20 gift card when I'm done," the participant said.

The participant described multiple ways to respond: online via a link, by telephone with someone from the study team, or by mail. "I can do the survey online with a link or over the phone with someone from the study team. It can even be completed by mail," the meeting participant said.

The account is a first-person report of receiving the email rather than a direct CDC announcement. The participant urged others whose families took part in the SEED study to look for the message and said they planned to complete the survey: "I'm going to do it. It feels good to be a part of something that can make a difference," the meeting participant said. They added that their input might help improve services or supports for other autistic people as they age.

No details in this transcript specify enrollment criteria beyond contacting people whose families were in the original SEED study, nor does it reproduce any formal recruitment language from the CDC beyond the participant’s paraphrase. The CDC is named in the message as the sponsor; the transcript does not provide a CDC contact, a formal study URL, or an institutional review or consent description.