PARTICIPANT INFORMATION AND CONSENT FORM

Participant Information

Research Project Title: Measuring Questionable Health Behaviours: A Cross-Cultural Validation Study
Research Project Reference: 379

Dear Participant,
You are invited to take part in the above research project. The ethical aspects of this research project have been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) of Torrens University Australia. This project will be carried out according to the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2023). The Participant Information section tells you about the research project and explains the processes involved with taking part. Knowing what is involved will help you decide if you want to take part in the research.

Please read this information carefully. Ask questions about anything that you do not understand or want to know more about. Participation in this research is voluntary. If you do not wish to take part, you do not have to. If you decide you want to take part in the research project, you will be asked to sign the consent section. You have been invited because you are over the age of 18, and an Australian citizen.

The aim of this project is:

Torrens University Australia researchers are contributing to a global research project to assess the structure of questionable health behaviours worldwide. This study is part of the Reason4Health project funded by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia through the IDEAS funding scheme (project number 7739597), approved by the Psychology Research Ethics Committee at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia, reference number 935/1.
A growing body of evidence suggests that two types of behaviours – not following medical recommendations and using non-evidence-based treatments – are more frequent than previously thought, and that they seem to have strong psychological roots.
We are cross-culturally testing this assumption, by conducting the same survey in as many countries as possible.
You are invited to the Australian based study.

The expected benefits of this project are:

We cannot guarantee or promise that you will receive any direct benefits from this research; however, possible benefits may include the opportunity to reflect on your health and the different ways you try to maintain health. By taking part in this research, you are helping us know more about the health behaviours of people around the world.

Your participation in this project will involve:

In this study, you will be asked to answer a series of questions about yourself, your attitudes and beliefs, and your behavior related to health, in an online survey. Participating in the study will take no longer than 20 minutes.

The foreseeable risks of participation have been identified as:

Although unlikely, reflecting on health behaviours may generate feelings of discomfort. Participants who experience discomfort are encouraged to engage in self-care and seek medical support if required.

Data Management

The data collected as part of this project, including any audio or video recordings and any photographs, will rest with Torrens University Australia. This includes storing and managing data in accordance with the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research. Any information obtained for the purpose of this research project that can identify you will be treated as confidential and securely stored. It will be disclosed only with your permission, or as required by law. The information collected as part of this research project may be disseminated through public statements or publications, including theses, reports, conference presentations and journal articles. Data will be aggregated and summarised before being reported. Participants will be described using pseudonyms and will not be identified as individuals, occupants of particular positions or members of specific organisations. Data will be provided to a public data repository. That is, the research data will be made publicly available to publish knowledge gained from this study.

Unspecified Consent
The research team is seeking your unspecified consent for the use of your data.
When you agree to unspecified consent it means that you agree that your data, as part of a larger dataset (the information collected for this project) can be re-used in any future research.
To enable this re-use, your data will be held at Open Science Framework. The data will be added to an open repository. The stored data available for re-use will not have information in it that makes you identifiable.
You are welcome to discuss unspecified consent with the research team.

Option to Withdraw

Your participation in this research project is voluntary. You should feel no pressure or compulsion of any kind to participate. If you change your mind about participating, you are free to withdraw at any time during the research project without providing an explanation. You may also ask the researchers to return or dispose of any data collected from you at any time (unless it is not possible to disaggregate your data from the rest of the data).

Non-identifiable Survey
As a non-identifiable survey is collected without any identifying information (eg name), it is generally not possible to retrieve the data collected for an individual participant.
However, should you have any concerns and wish to see if it possible to withdraw your responses, please contact the researchers who will attempt to isolate the submission and remove it as requested, if possible.

Research Team

If you would like further information regarding this research project and involvement, please contact the researcher(s):
Dr Louise Townsin: louise.townsin@torrens.edu.au
Kay Govin: kay.govin@torrens.edu.au

If you have any enquiries about the ethical aspects of this research project, such as the way it is being conducted or any questions about being a research participant in general, please contact the reviewing HREC:

Torrens University Australia HREC
Human Research Ethics Officer, ethics@torrens.edu.au.

Thank you for your interest in this research project.

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