title: Do participation rates change when active consent procedures replace passive consent.
abstract: Researchers face considerable ambiguity and controversy regarding the issue of informed consent. Decisions about consent procedures can affect study participation rates and prevalence estimates among specific populations. Changing from passive to active parental consent procedures was examined in a case study with an anonymous survey of sixth- through eighth-grade students' substance use. Four types of procedures for obtaining parental consent were examined. Results suggest that certain types of consent procedures can yield high levels of participation. This study also demonstrates that low participation rates with some active consent procedures can cause biases in sample characteristics and outcome data.
authors.affiliation: Youth Tobacco Access Project, Department of Psychology, DePaul University, USA.
authors.forename: S B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Pokorny
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Jason
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Schoeny
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Townsend
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Curie
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002641:Chicago; D002648:Child; D003256:Community Participation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003625:Data Collection; D003657:Decision Making; D006306:Health Surveys; D006805:Human Experimentation; D006801:Humans; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D020458:Third-Party Consent / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*