Table 5.
Attitudes toward practices in research ethics: aggregate responses and association between responses and independent variables. Numbers represent percentages of respondents who answered “yes”.
| Research ethics practice | Aggregate n = 125 (%) | KAU n = 75 (%) | ASU n = 50 (%) | Gender (%) | Academic position (%) | Prior ethics training (%) | Prior research (%) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Women | Prof | Mid-level | Junior | Any Ethics Training | None | Any | None | ||||
| (1) There should be measures to protect patient data from being accidentally exposed | 93.6 | 94.7 | 92.0 | 96.3 | 91.3 | 100.0 | 97.5 | 84.8 | 95.7 | 92.4 | 92.1 | 97.1 |
| (2) Patients should be informed about the full details of the research including all risks and benefits | 90.4 | 85.3 | 98.0 | 92.6 | 88.4 | 89.7 | 92.5 | 89.1 | 95.7 | 87.3 | 92.1 | 91.2 |
| (3) Informed consent should always be obtained by having patients sign a written form | 91.2 | 88.0 | 96.0 | 88.9 | 92.8 | 100.0 | 87.5 | 87.0 | 95.1 | 88.6 | 87.6 | 100.0 |
| (4) Informed consent from patients is necessary for use of their biological samples in research | 87.2 | 92.0 | 80.0 | 87.0 | 87.0 | 89.7 | 97.5 | 76.1 | 87.0 | 87.3 | 88.8 | 88.2 |
| (5) When involving patients in research that presents greater than minimal risk, informed consent must be sought from each patient | 91.2 | 94.7 | 86.0 | 92.6 | 89.9 | 97.4 | 97.5 | 76.1 | 93.5* | 89.9 | 91.0 | 91.2 |
| (6) Patients should not be told about potential risks of a study because they may not enroll in the study. | 7.2 | 9.3 | 4.0 | 3.7 | 7.2 | 10.3 | 0.0 | 10.9 | 2.2 | 10.1 | 6.7 | 8.8 |
| (7) No need to obtain research informed consent for blood samples obtained for clinical tests | 32.8 | 36.0 | 28.0 | 30.4 | 37.0 | 38.5** | 14.3 | 37.9 | 23.9 | 39.2 | 34.8 | 32.4 |
| (8) Vulnerable groups such as children and the mentally ill could provide informed consent | 39.2 | 40.0 | 38.0 | 53.7** | 26.1 | 41.0 | 50.0 | 28.3 | 41.3 | 38.0 | 49.4** | 14.7 |
| (9) If no surrogate is available to give informed consent for vulnerable groups, they could still be included | 7.2 | 5.3 | 10.0 | 3.7 | 10.1 | 12.8 | 5.0 | 4.3 | 6.5 | 7.6 | 7.9 | 5.9 |
| (10) It is okay to fabricate data to improve outcome of research as long as there is no harms to the patients | 11.2 | 10.7 | 12.0 | 5.6 | 15.9* | 23.1** | 0.0 | 10.9 | 13.0 | 10.1 | 10.1 | 14.7 |
*P < .05; **P < .01.