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Article History

Received: 5 April 2017

Accepted: 31 January 2018

First Online: 17 February 2018

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: The ethical approval was obtained from the local administration at Weifang Medical University (China) on March 1, 2014. Permission by the headmasters and other administrators were received before the survey was started. The informed consent by the students was given in writing before filling in the questionnaire. In China, the national regulations of medical research ethics do not address the issue of parental consent for respondents under the age of 18.Footnote removedAs the doctoral thesis which the study was a part of was conducted in the Swedish university of Karolinska Institutet, the Swedish regulations on respondents under the age of 18 were applicable to this study. According to the Swedish Law on ethical approval on research on humans,Footnote removedif the respondent is between 15 and 18 years of age and understands the topic of the research, he or she can give consent to participate in research studies. As a result, no consent was gained from the parents of the students, as we considered the participants at their age were capable of understanding the research topic as it related to their own life and health. Students were informed that they could withdraw at any stage and volunteered in participating after reading the informed consent. All participants remained anonymous during the whole research process.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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