Doyle, Carla M. http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5104-3068
Maheu-Giroux, Mathieu
Lambert, Gilles
Mishra, Sharmistha
Apelian, Herak
Messier-Peet, Marc
Otis, Joanne
Grace, Daniel
Hart, Trevor A.
Moore, David M.
Lachowsky, Nathan J.
Cox, Joseph http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7041-1556
,
Funding for this research was provided by:
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (#TE2-138299)
Canadian HIV Trials Network, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (#CTN300)
Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (#Engage)
Ontario HIV Treatment Network (#1051)
Public Health Agency of Canada (4500370314)
Canadian Blood Services (#MSM2017LP-OD)
Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Quebec
Universities Without Walls
Engage
Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Santé
Réseau du researche en santé des populations du Quebec
Ryerson University
Canada Excellence Research Chairs, Government of Canada
Applied HIV Research Chair, Ontario HIV Treatment Network
Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (#16863)
Article History
First Online: 9 July 2020
Compliance with Ethical Standards
:
: MM-G reports an investigator-sponsored research grant from Gilead Sciences Inc. outside of the submitted work and contractual arrangements from both the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), also outside of the submitted work. JC has investigator-sponsored research grants from Gilead Sciences Canada, Merck Canada and ViiV Healthcare. He has also received financial support for conference travel and advisory work for Gilead Sciences Canada, Merck Canada and ViiV Healthcare. NJL has an investigator-sponsored research grant from Gilead Sciences Canada. All research grants and consulting are outside of the submitted work.
: Ethics approval for the Engage Study in Montreal was obtained from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. Ethics approval for the Engage Study co-authors outside of Montreal was obtained from Ryerson University, the University of Windsor, St. Michael’s Hospital, the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and the University of Victoria.
: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. The age of consent to participate in a research study in all Canadian provinces, excluding Quebec, is 16 [CitationRef removed]. Within the province of Quebec, the age of consent to participate is 18 [CitationRef removed]. Following guidelines provided by <i>the Society for Adolescent Medicine</i> [CitationRef removed], Engage did not seek parental consent of those aged 16–18 in Montreal. Those aged 14 and older can legally consent to STBBI screening in Quebec without parental consent [CitationRef removed], and responding to the Engage questionnaire would be of minimal risk to GBM aged 16–18. On the other hand, as a study of sexual health among sexually active GBM, requiring parental consent could compromise the privacy, and possibly safety, of young GBM. Therefore, the potential harms of seeking parental consent to participate in the Engage study for GBM aged 16–18 outweighed the harms of not obtaining parental consent.