Garett Renee, Emish Mohammed, Young Sean D
ElevateU, Irvine, California, United States of America.
University of California Institute for Prediction Technology, Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, California, United States of America.
Health Policy Technol. 2023 Jun;12(2). doi: 10.1016/j.hlpt.2023.100746. Epub 2023 Apr 18.
Public health research relies heavily on participant involvement. Investigators have examined factors that affect participation and found that altruism enables engagement. At the same time, time commitment, family concerns, multiple follow-up visits, and potential adverse events are barriers to engagement. Thus, investigators may need to find new methods to attract and motivate participants to participate, including new compensation methods. As cryptocurrency is being increasingly used and accepted to pay and reimburse people for work activities, this currency should be similarly explored as an option for research participants to attempt to incentivize them to participate in studies and offer new possibilities for study reimbursement. This paper explores the potential use of cryptocurrency as a form of compensation in public health research studies and discusses the pros and cons of its use. Although few studies have used cryptocurrency to compensate participants, cryptocurrency may be used as a reward for various research tasks, including filling out surveys, participating in in-depth interviews or focus groups, and/or completing interventions. Using cryptocurrencies to compensate participants in health-related studies can provide benefits such as anonymity, security, and convenience. However, it also poses potential challenges, including volatility, legal and regulatory challenges, and the risk of hacking and fraud. Researchers must carefully weigh the benefits against the potential downsides before using them as a compensation method in health-related studies.
公共卫生研究严重依赖参与者的参与。研究人员已经研究了影响参与的因素，发现利他主义能够促进参与。与此同时，时间投入、家庭顾虑、多次随访以及潜在的不良事件都是参与的障碍。因此，研究人员可能需要寻找新的方法来吸引和激励参与者参与，包括新的补偿方法。随着加密货币越来越多地被用于支付和偿还人们的工作活动费用，这种货币也应作为研究参与者的一种选择进行探索，试图激励他们参与研究，并为研究报销提供新的可能性。本文探讨了加密货币在公共卫生研究中作为一种补偿形式的潜在用途，并讨论了其使用的利弊。尽管很少有研究使用加密货币来补偿参与者，但加密货币可作为对各种研究任务的奖励，包括填写调查问卷、参与深度访谈或焦点小组以及/或者完成干预措施。使用加密货币补偿健康相关研究的参与者可以带来诸如匿名性、安全性和便利性等好处。然而，它也带来了潜在的挑战，包括波动性、法律和监管挑战以及黑客攻击和欺诈风险。在将其用作健康相关研究的补偿方法之前，研究人员必须仔细权衡其好处与潜在的不利方面。
