a booklet on participants’ rights to improve consent for clinical research a randomized trial参与者的权利小册子来改善同意随机试验的临床研究.pdfVIP

A Booklet on Participants’ Rights to Improve Consent for Clinical Research: A Randomized Trial Jocelyne R. Benatar*, John Mortimer, Matthew Stretton, Ralph A. H. Stewart Green Lane Cardiovascular Service, Auckland City Hospital, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand Abstract Objective: Information on the rights of subjects in clinical trials has become increasingly complex and difficult to understand. This study evaluates whether a simple booklet which is relevant to all research studies improves the understanding of rights needed for subjects to provide informed consent. Methods: 21 currently used informed consent forms (ICF) from international clinical trials were separated into information related to the specific research study, and general information on participants’ rights. A booklet designed to provide information on participants’ rights which used simple language was developed to replace this information in current ICF’s Readability of each component of ICF’s and the booklet was then assessed using the Flesch-Kincaid Reading ease score (FK). To further evaluate the booklet 282 hospital inpatients were randomised to one of three ways to present research information; a standard ICF, the booklet combined with a short ICF, or the booklet combined with a simplified ICF. Comprehension of information related to the research proposal and to participant’s rights was assessed by questionnaire. Results: Information related to participants’ rights contributed an average of 44% of the words in standard ICFs, and was harder to read than information describing the clinical trial (FK 25 versus (vs.) 41 respectively, p = 0.0003). The booklet reduced the number of words and improved FK from 25 to 42. The simplified ICF had a slightly high