An HIV Prevention Protocol Reviewed at 15 National Sites: How do Ethics Committees Protect Communities?

• Published in: Journal of empirical research on human research ethics Vol. 3; no. 2; pp. 77 - 86
• Main Authors: Deeds, Bethany Griffin, Castillo, Marné, Beason, Zephyr, Cunningham, Shayna D., Ellen, Jonathan M., Peralta, Ligia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA University of California Press 01.06.2008; SAGE Publications; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescents; Communities; Community based instruction; Community life; Community structure; Ethics committees; How Ethics Committees Review Community-Based Research; Medical research; Research ethics; Respect; Social ethics; ethics committee; adolescent; HIV; community
• ISSN: 1556-2646; 1556-2654; 1556-2654
• DOI: 10.1525/jer.2008.3.2.77

TO LEARN WHETHER ETHICS COMMITTEES reviewing community-based participatory research concentrate on the protection of communities, in addition to individual participants, data from 15 sites were analyzed. Eighty-two ethics committee concerns related to consent (35%), protocol procedures (49%), data collection (17%), and HIPAA (6%) were identified. Concerns generally involved individual level subject issues; only 17% were related to community issues. To improve community-level protections in research, the authors recommend that both ethics committee members and research staff receive education concerning protection and respect for communities, that a community member group be established to advise researchers throughout the planning and implementation of community-level studies and that local ethics committee boards include members with community-level experience.