Development and pilot testing of an online module for ethics education based on the Nigerian National Code for Health Research Ethics

BMC Medical Ethics

Research Article

Olubunmi A Ogunrin¹  Temidayo O Ogundiran²  Clement Adebamowo³ 

[1] Department of Medicine, Neurology Unit, University of Benin, PMB 1154, Benin City, Nigeria;West African Bioethics Training Program, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria;Department of Surgery, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria;West African Bioethics Training Program, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria;West African Bioethics Training Program, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria;Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Institute of Human Virology and Greenbaum Cancer Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 21201, Baltimore, MD, USA;Office of Research and Training, Institute of Human Virology, 252 Herbert Macaulay Way, Abuja, Nigeria;

关键词: Ethics education;    Nigerian Code;    Online ethics module;    Research ethics;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6939-14-1

 received in 2012-06-14, accepted in 2012-12-27,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe formulation and implementation of national ethical regulations to protect research participants is fundamental to ethical conduct of research. Ethics education and capacity are inadequate in developing African countries. This study was designed to develop a module for online training in research ethics based on the Nigerian National Code of Health Research Ethics and assess its ease of use and reliability among biomedical researchers in Nigeria.MethodologyThis was a three-phased evaluation study. Phase one involved development of an online training module based on the Nigerian Code of Health Research Ethics (NCHRE) and uploading it to the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) website while the second phase entailed the evaluation of the module for comprehensibility, readability and ease of use by 45 Nigerian biomedical researchers. The third phase involved modification and re-evaluation of the module by 30 Nigerian biomedical researchers and determination of test-retest reliability of the module using Cronbach’s alpha.ResultsThe online module was easily accessible and comprehensible to 95% of study participants. There were significant differences in the pretest and posttest scores of study participants during the evaluation of the online module (p = 0.001) with correlation coefficients of 0.9 and 0.8 for the pretest and posttest scores respectively. The module also demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability and internal consistency as shown by Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.92 and 0.84 for the pretest and posttest respectively.ConclusionThe module based on the Nigerian Code was developed, tested and made available online as a valuable tool for training in cultural and societal relevant ethical principles to orient national and international biomedical researchers working in Nigeria. It would complement other general research ethics and Good Clinical Practice modules. Participants suggested that awareness of the online module should be increased through seminars, advertisement on government websites and portals used by Nigerian biomedical researchers, and incorporation of the Code into the undergraduate medical training curriculum.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Ogunrin et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013