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Article History

Received: 5 September 2018

Accepted: 18 June 2019

First Online: 4 July 2019

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: We obtained verbal informed consent from all participants. We have done the pilot test in some community health centres and found that there were a large number of patients on the investigation sites and the patients were in a hurry during the visits. Obtaining written consent from the patients one by one may influence patient flow tendency and disturb the outpatient process. The advantages of the verbal consent are, firstly we can use body language to make it easier to understand and the information is more accurate. Secondly, the mutual communication and feedback is in time. We reported the results of the pilot test and the advantages of the verbal consent to the Institutional Review Board of Sun Yat-sen University. The board reviewed and approved this method of obtaining verbal consent from patients. The protocol for this study conforms to the guidelines of the1975 Declaration of Helsinki.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.