Ghandour Lilian, Yasmine Rola, El-Kak Faysal
Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
J Empir Res Hum Res Ethics. 2013 Jul;8(3):12-21. doi: 10.1525/jer.2013.8.3.12.
Informed consent forms (ICFs) maintain the integrity of research ethics and preserve participants' rights. Using cross-sectional online survey data on sexuality and sexual practices of private university students from Lebanon, this paper questions whether participants thoroughly read ICFs, and whether time taken to read ICFs is associated with data completeness. A total of 2,534 surveys were completed; a median time of 18.66 seconds was taken to read the 815-word ICF; 65% of participants consented within the first 30 seconds and 90% in less than the minimum predicted time (2.7 minutes). Our data indicates potential participant neglect of ICFs, raising the question of whether participants who endorse an informed consent form are truly informed of the study objectives and their rights.
知情同意书（ICF）维护了研究伦理的完整性并保障了参与者的权利。本文利用关于黎巴嫩私立大学生性行为和性实践的横断面在线调查数据，探讨参与者是否彻底阅读了知情同意书，以及阅读知情同意书所花费的时间是否与数据完整性相关。总共完成了2534份调查问卷；阅读这份815字的知情同意书的平均时间为18.66秒；65%的参与者在最初30秒内同意，90%的参与者在少于预估最短时间（2.7分钟）内同意。我们的数据表明参与者可能忽视了知情同意书，这引发了一个问题，即签署知情同意书的参与者是否真的了解研究目的及其权利。
