The Role of Community Advisory Boards: Involving Communities in the Informed Consent Process
Ronald P. Strauss, DMD, PhD,
Sohini Sengupta, PhD, MPH,
Sandra Crouse Quinn, PhD,
Jean Goeppinger, RN, PhD,
Cora Spaulding, MD, MPH,
Susan M. Kegeles, PhD and
Greg Millett, MPH
Ronald P. Strauss is with the Department of Dental Ecology, School of Dentistry; the Department of Social Medicine, School of Medicine; and the Center for AIDS Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At the time of the study, Sohini Sengupta was, and Susan M. Kegeles is, with the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California, San Francisco. Sandra Crouse Quinn is with the Department of Health Services Administration, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. Jean Goeppinger is with the Schools of Nursing and Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Cora Spaulding is with the Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Greg Millett is with the Department of Health Education, University of Alabama in Birmingham.
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Ronald P. Strauss, DMD, PhD, School of Dentistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB #7450, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7450 (e-mail: ron_strauss{at}unc.edu).
Ethical research involving human subjects mandates that individualinformed consent be obtained from research participants or fromsurrogates when participants are not able to consent for themselves.The existing requirements for informed consent assume that allstudy participants have personal autonomy; fully comprehendthe purpose, risks, and benefits of the research; and volunteerfor projects that disclose all relevant information. Yet contemporaryexamples of lapses in the individual informed consent processhave been reported.
The authors propose the use of community advisory boards, whichcan facilitate research by providing advice about the informedconsent process and the design and implementation of researchprotocols. These activities could help reduce the number ofindividual informed consent lapses, benefiting study participantsand the scientific integrity of the research in question.
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