Table 1.

The various routes for applying for ethical review procedures in an international internet-based mHealth intervention study.

Ethical approval needed?	Country	Contacted institute for ethical approval	REC contacted by	Comment on the ethical procedure needed
Yes	NL	Medical Ethics Review Board at institute of researchers	Directly accessible by the researchers	Full review procedures were needed to recruit participants in the Netherlands.
	GER	National society	Application possible by a researcher, but needs to be in German	Full review procedure.
	ESP	University REC	Application only possible involving a member of the university	Full review procedure.
	UK	University REC	Application only possible involving a member of the university	Full review procedure.
No	USA	Governmental institute	The researchers directly contacted the institute	The governmental institute exempted this study from ethical approval.
	CAN	Governmental institute	The researchers directly contacted the institute	The study is not funded nor hosted in Canada, therefore Canadian national authorities do not need to review this study ethically.
	AUS	University REC	The researchers directly contacted the university	The Research Ethics and Compliance department of the university stated that the ethical approval of the UMCG is sufficient and no further ethical procedures are needed.

Note: REC = research ethics committee; NL = the Netherlands; GER = Germany; ESP = Spain; UK = the United Kingdom; USA = the United Stated of America; CAN = Canada; AUS = Australia.