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Article History

Received: 26 August 2024

Accepted: 20 June 2025

First Online: 2 August 2025

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: The authors confirm that this work is original and has not been published elsewhere, nor is it currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Before initiating the study, ethical approval dated 24.07.2024 was obtained from the ethics committee of Akdeniz Karpaz University with reference number AKUN/2024/77345TR. After reviewing the proposal, the ethical committee approved the proposal as the methods and procedures align with ethical rules and regulations for scientific research. The ethical committee confirmed that the procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1964. In Turkey, the requirement that researchers must get informed permission from subjects before requesting clearance from an ethical committee is established in national legislation governing clinical research and biological investigations. This policy is supported by the Turkish Ministry of Health under the authority granted by the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (TİTCK). In line with Article 6 of the Beşerî Tıbbi Ürünlerin Klinik Araştırmaları Hakkında Yönetmelik (Ministry of Health, 2023), informed consent is obtained before ethical review submission. This stipulation specifies that informed consent—detailing objectives, risks/benefits, confidentiality, voluntary participation, right to withdraw—must be obtained prior to any research procedures or submission to the Ethics Committee. This ensures participant autonomy and voluntariness and guarantees that the Ethics Committee reviews a protocol already aligned with ethical principles in how participants’ rights are respected.

: A written informed consent was obtained from the participants by the corresponding author on 02.05.2024 where they declared their willingness to participate or withdraw from the study. The participants provided consent to the authors to publish the conclusions of the research in journals and conference proceedings. They provided consent for the data derived from this study to be used for research purposes and shared with the consent of the authors. The participants were informed that their identities would be protected by anonymizing their identities as the research would not pose any harm to them. These were included during the ethical approval application in line with the ethical consideration requirements and policies of the Graduate School of Akdeniz Karpaz University.