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Awareness of Jordanian Investigators About the Importance of Ethics Review Committees: A Pilot Study

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Abstract

Protection of study participants is an integral function of the Institutional Review Board (IRB). Recently, great efforts were dedicated to enhance investigators’ awareness of ethical principles in conducting human research and to implement reviewing committees’ standards in Jordan to ensure the transparency, versatility, and responsibility in handling human subjects research in the country. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the awareness and attitudes of healthcare investigators in Jordan towards the structure and importance of IRBs. A questionnaire was distributed to 200 investigators and graduate students from the Jordan University of Science and Technology. The majority of the responses indicated positive knowledge towards core ethics guidelines and the importance of IRBs. This includes beneficence, confidentiality, informed consent, and treating participants with respect. In addition, the majority of participants (> 82%) agreed on the importance of the IRB for ensuring the rights, safety, and well-being of the research subjects. Moreover, the majority of participants (> 80%) agreed that the IRB members should be trained on ethics regulations in conducting research and declare any conflict of interest with the investigators. On the other hand, about 30% of participants believed that being reviewed by the IRB would delay research and make it more difficult for the researcher. Jordanian investigators have good awareness of and knowledge about research ethics and the importance of IRBs, though more education is needed.

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Abbreviations

KAUH:

King Abdullah University Hospital

IRB:

Institutional Review Board

JUST:

Jordan University of Science and Technology

JFDA:

Jordan Food and Drug Administration

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Acknowledgements

Work on this project was supported by Grant # 5R25TW010026-02 from the Fogarty International Center of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. We would like to thank Dr. Bradley McConnell, University of Houston, USA for proof reading the final version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, PO Box 3030, Irbid, 22110, Jordan

    Abeer M. Rababa’h, Karem H. Alzoubi & Mera Ababneh

  2. Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, 22110, Jordan

    Omar F. Khabour

Authors
  1. Abeer M. Rababa’h
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  2. Karem H. Alzoubi
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  3. Mera Ababneh
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  4. Omar F. Khabour
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Correspondence to Abeer M. Rababa’h.

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The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical Standard

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Jordan University of Science and Technology (Irbid, Jordan, approval number: 32/97/2016). Informed consent was obtained verbally and the completion of the questionnaire was suggestive of the participants’ informed consent. To assure confidentiality, the participants’ name was not connected to the data presented in this study and coding system for each questionnaire was used for data entrance and analysis.

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Rababa’h, A.M., Alzoubi, K.H., Ababneh, M. et al. Awareness of Jordanian Investigators About the Importance of Ethics Review Committees: A Pilot Study. Sci Eng Ethics 26, 821–831 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-019-00139-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-019-00139-7

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