Document is current

Article History

Received: 24 August 2018

Accepted: 6 March 2019

First Online: 18 March 2019

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: The Data Protection Officer (<i>Datenschutzbeauftragte/r, DSB</i>) and the Information Security Officer (<i>Informationssicherheitsbeauftragte/r, ISB</i>) of the RKI examined our study design and gave us their ethical approval, basis on the fact that there were no data protection concerns against the implementation of our study. As our study did not involve interventions no further ethical clearance was necessary.The consent to participate was implied by completion of the questionnaire; before starting the survey, participants who gave their consent chose the answer “yes I agree to the terms and conditions” and therefore they could complete the survey. Participants who did not give their consent chose the answer “no I do not agree”, and therefore they did not participate to the survey.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.