CITI Model 3

Which of the following is the LEAST important activity when protecting human subjects in international research?

Assessing transportation conditions

A researcher wants to contact former prisoners who are now on parole. She wants to study the difficulty of getting employment based on whether the subjects had been convicted of felony versus misdemeanor crimes. She needs to:

Do nothing in regards the Subpart C since the research does not meet the criteria for prison research: individuals on parole are not considered prisoners. The definition applies to both minors and adults.

According to federal regulations, "children" are defined as:

Persons who have not yet attained the legal age of consent under the applicable laws in the jurisdiction in which the research will be conducted.

Which of the following on-line research strategies raises the most concerns regarding the ethical principle of respecting the autonomy of research subjects and the corresponding federal regulations requiring informed consent?

A researcher proposes to join a moderated support group for cancer survivors posing as a survivor. She plans to insert comments to see how the members respond.

The provisions of Subpart D, of the DHHS regulations, Additional Protections for Children Involved as Subjects in Research apply to:

All research funded by DHHS

Parental notification, in lieu of active parental permission, is allowed when:

An IRB has approved a waiver of the requirement for parental permission.

The Internet can be used as a research tool or as the object of a study. Which of the following examples best describes an investigator using the Internet as a research tool?

An investigator uses his Facebook wall to post a URL link to a survey he is hosting on SurveyMonkey.

If you're unsure about the particulars of HIPAA research requirements at your organization or have questions, you can usually consult with:

An organizational IRB or Privacy Board, privacy officer ("Privacy Officer"), or privacy official ("Privacy Official"), depending on the issue.

Which of the following examples of using the Internet to conduct research meets the federal definition of research with human subjects?

Conducting an on-line focus group with cancer survivors to determine familial support systems. The researcher also invites subjects' significant others to be a part of the focus group.

A covered entity may use or disclose PHI without an authorization, or documentation of a waiver or an alteration of authorization, for all of the following EXCEPT:

Data that does not cross state lines when disclosed by the covered entity.

In addition to the general provisions of the Common Rule (the federal regulations for protecting research subjects), the following regulations also govern research in the public schools:

FERPA, PPRA, and Subpart D of the federal regulations

A researcher proposes to conduct a study at a foreign site that has been determined to be exempt from the federal regulations by institutional policy. According to federal regulations, is review required at the foreign site?

If a proposed study qualifies for exemption, federal regulations do not require review at the foreign site where it will be conducted.

What are some considerations for a U.S. researcher conducting a study in a non-U.S. setting when obtaining informed consent from subjects?

In addition to the consent of the research subjects, are there other individuals or groups whose permission must be sought?

Researchers endeavoring to conduct an on-line study should consider that there are some potential risks of harm to subjects unique to Internet-based research. One of these risks is:

Individuals may post private identifiable information about themselves on-line without intending it to be public and available to researchers.

A researcher's study uses a dataset of prisoner demographic characteristics. This dataset includes criminal history data that predates incarceration and includes data on disciplinary behavior while in prison. There is no interaction with prisoners. The researcher claims and the IRB chair agrees that the study is exempt from IRB review. This decision:

Is wrong. 45 CFR 46.101(b) states that research conducted in prisons may not be exempt.

The age of majority in international research is determined by the

Laws, customs, and norms in the area in which the research will be conducted.

A researcher proposes a study and wants to recruit subjects from health care clinics in Jamaica. The survey will be conducted by the U.S. researchers at the clinic. The nurses at the clinic will inform prospective subjects about the availably of the research, but will not consent the subjects nor perform any research procedures (even screening procedures). Are the nurses engaged in the research according to federal regulations?

No, they are not engaged because they are only informing the subjects and not consenting or performing any research procedures, or receiving or sharing any private, identifiable information.

What procedures must be described in an agreement called an "assurance of compliance" with OHRP?

Procedures in place that ensure that subjects will be protected in a manner commensurate with the Common Rule, including review by an independent committee comparable to an IRB.

The purpose of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is to:

Provide parents certain rights over their children's educational records.

According to Subpart D, which of the following research activities with children would qualify for an exemption?

Research about educational testing

The specific Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Regulations that apply to research with children are known as:

Subpart D: Additional Protections for Children Involved as Subjects in Research

Which federal regulation or law governs how researchers can obtain data about subjects' disciplinary status in school from academic records?

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

Which of the following methods could be considered a "best practice" in terms of informing respondents how their answers to an on-line survey about personal information will be protected?

The investigator uses the informed consent process to explain how respondent data will transmitted from the website to his encrypted database, without ever recording respondents' IP addresses.

A researcher asks an IRB to waive the requirement for parental permission for a study conducted in schools because the nature of the research requires participation of all the children present in classrooms on the day the research will take place. Assuming that the basic research design could be approved by the IRB and the school, which of the following requirements must be met before an IRB could waive parental permission?

The research must pose no more than minimal risk.

A researcher wants to observe preschoolers at a local public playground to evaluate levels of cooperation. The researcher will not interact with the children. This research would be eligible for which type of IRB review?

This research would not require IRB review because it would be eligible for exemption since the researcher is not interacting with the children and the playground is a public setting.

A study that involves interviews of adults is eligible for expedited review. The researcher wants to add an adolescent population (aged 12 to 17) to the study and has designed a parental permission and assent process. No additional changes are planned. Which of the following statements about review of the revised protocol is accurate?

Unless the nature of the questions would raise the level of risk to more than minimal for adolescents, the research would still qualify for expedited review.

A professor at Big State University proposes to study attitudes about obesity in Chile by giving subjects in Chile surveys to complete. Which is a question that the Big State University IRB should ask the researcher in order to determine if this study should be reviewed by a local Chilean IRB or ethics committee as well as the Big State University IRB?

Will the researcher have collaborators at the research site abroad?

A sociologist wants to study a culture that occurs in some women's prisons: "state families," in which individual prisoners take on certain roles within a group of like-minded prisoners. There is previous evidence that younger prisoners will use older inmates who play the roles of grandparents as a resource before they will turn to staff for help and advice. The lieutenant in charge of a dorm of long-term prisoners offers to gather volunteers to speak to the researcher and also offers to vouch for the integrity of the researcher. The use of this staff is:

Wrong and is prohibited; subject selection needs to be free from intervention by prison authorities or prisoners.

HIPAA includes in its definition of "research," activities related to ...

development of generalizable knowledge.

HIPAA protects a category of information known as protected health information (PHI). PHI includes:

identifiable health information that is created or held by covered entities and their business associates.

Under HIPAA, "retrospective research" (a.k.a., data mining) on collections of PHI generally ...

is research, and so requires either an authorization or meeting one of the criteria for a waiver of authorization.