Kumar, Dilip
Sharma, Mahendra Kumar
Raj, Vijay Amrit
Funding for this research was provided by:
Manipal University Jaipur
Article History
Received: 12 August 2025
Accepted: 12 March 2026
First Online: 9 April 2026
Declarations
:
: The authors declare no competing interests.
: Under the remit of the Ethics Committee of Manipal University Jaipur, anonymised, non-interventional questionnaire studies of adult participants with no linked identifiers fall within the “exemption from review” category specified by the ICMR National Ethical Guidelines (2017, Table 4.2) for less-than-minimal-risk research. On this basis, formal IEC approval was not required. The study was carried out in accordance with the ethical standards of the IEC, the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments, and the ICMR guidelines.
: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Participants were fully informed about the objectives of the research, their voluntary participation, and their right to withdraw at any time without any consequence. Anonymity and confidentiality of responses were assured throughout the research process.
: Informed Consent was obtained from all the participants to anonymise data and findings from this research so they can be published.