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Article History

Received: 26 August 2024

Accepted: 8 September 2025

First Online: 10 November 2025

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: The Ethics Review Board (ERB) of the Medical University of Innsbruck exempted the present study from full ethics review on 27 January 2022 (ID: 27.01.2022/MJ), as under Austrian law it did not require formal approval by an ethics committee. This was because the study was not classified as a medical study (“Federal Act on the Organisation of Universities and their Studies (Universitätsgesetz 2002 – UG)”, 2002; “Hospitals and Health Resorts Act (Bundesgesetz über Krankenanstalten und Kuranstalten - KAKuG)”, 2016).

: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Association 2013) and the APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (APA 2002). Informed consent was obtained electronically from all participants prior to their participation. Before beginning the online questionnaire (administered between October and November 2023), participants were presented with an information page describing the study aims, procedures, voluntary nature of participation, data protection and confidentiality measures, and their right to withdraw at any time without penalty. Only those who confirmed their understanding and provided active consent by clicking the “I agree” button were able to access the survey. Consent was recorded on the date of each participant’s survey completion. Data were collected anonymously and stored securely for research purposes only.