Findings from the American College of Epidemiology's survey on Ethics guidelines. The American College of Epidemiology Ethics and Standards of Practice Committee.
OBJECTIVE
A survey to establish both the need and subject areas for a possible new set of ethics guidelines for epidemiologists was conducted among a random sample of 300 North American (Canada, Mexico, and United States) members of three major United States-based professional epidemiology organizations.


METHODS
An 88% response rate revealed wide agreement on topics to be included in any new set of guidelines, but uncertainty prevailed about the need for new guidelines; 41% agreed that there was a need to develop a new set, 43% had no opinion, and 16% disagreed.


RESULTS
There was almost no difference in preferences between men and women for topics to be included in a new set of guidelines, or between those aware or unaware of extant ethics guidelines in epidemiology. Fifty-four percent were aware of such guidelines and only 29% of these said they could describe the content of the guidelines.


CONCLUSIONS
More needs to be done to evaluate the utility of ethics codes in epidemiology.
Prineas
R J
RJ
University of Miami School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, FL, USA.
Goodman
K
K
Soskolne
C L
CL
Buck
G
G
Feinleib
M
M
Last
J
J
Andrews
J S
JS
D003625:Data Collection; D004813:Epidemiology; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009656:North America; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012955:Societies, Medical