An, Soyoung
Jiang, Li
Eck, Thomas
Funding for this research was provided by:
Sejong University
Article History
Received: 10 November 2024
Accepted: 28 November 2025
First Online: 20 December 2025
Competing interests
: The authors declare no competing interests.
: This study was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki, its subsequent amendments, and comparable ethical standards. According to the research ethics guidelines of Sejong University (the university that funded this study), this research may be categorized as research eligible for exemption from review due to being non-interventional research that posed minimal risk to participants ( ). Approval for the study was obtained on August 31, 2023; the study was exempted by the university. The university regulation regarding human subjects research and exemption from review is outlined in Article IV, Section 2 which states that research “that does not collect or record personally identifiable information may be exempt from review.” This exemption specifically applies to “Research in which, even if the researcher directly interacts with participants, the individuals are not specifically identified, and no sensitive information as defined in Article 23 of the Personal Information Protection Act is collected or recorded.” This research shared the purpose of the study, informed consent, and the voluntary nature of participation with all participants and no sensitive information was collected as the study did not involve medical, life science, intervention, or collection of direct personal data.
: Written informed consent and the voluntary nature of participation in the study were shared with all potential respondents. This study was conducted through an online survey. Participants who had been informed in advance about the purpose and content of the research and agreed to take part indicated their consent by clicking “Start Survey.” Those who chose not to participate could decide to not participate or freely exit the survey at any time, thereby ensuring the voluntary nature of participation. Informed consent took place during data collection for the study from Sept. to Dec. 2023 as the researchers shared informed consent information through the survey questionnaire and informed consent was obtained from study respondents prior to their study participation. Consent was obtained by the researchers from respondents, the scope of which covered participation, data use, and permission to publish. Respondents were informed about the voluntary nature of study participation and potential risks, the research purpose and study objectives, that their anonymity would be protected, how their data would be used, and that data would be anonymized.