2020 Volume 26 Issue 2 Pages 17-25
Ethical considerations are essential in human research. Research teams need a wide range of considerations, such as informed consent, protection of personal information, and responsibility to a collaborator's health condition. However, it is difficult to expect or plan all cases, especially in a large-scale cohort surveys. In addition, as a research team, there is a limitation to support and information provision to research subjects. This report describes the content and ideas of ethical considerations that the research team has discussed in the Ibaraki cohort study. Specifically, this report described the characteristics of ethical considerations in large-scale cohort surveys in 4 points; 1) informed consent, 2) personal information protection, 3) consideration in interview surveys, saliva survey and behavior observation, 4) feedback on survey results. How we deal with the problem of reported depression is described in 4 points; 1) outline, 2) feedback on results of depression, 3) cooperation with Ibaraki city, 4) making manual. Finally, we discussed the ethical issues that arise in the process of carrying out the research.
