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Article History

Received: 19 September 2019

Accepted: 6 September 2020

First Online: 14 September 2020

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: This research has undergone an administrative review. According to the national statistics law (chapter II, article 13), administration-supported surveys should be reviewed by the responsible sectors []. Hence, both the study proposal and questionnaires were submitted to the health sectors for administrative review, and the subjects’ privacy and rights protection was one of the contents of review. Moreover, according to the “Ethical Review Measures for Biomedical Research Involving Human Beings (Trial Implementation)” at the time of the study in 2014 - (chapter I, article 3), research on technology or product intervention for human body had to get the an approval through an ethical review, but there was no requirement for an ethical review for questionnaire research, such as in this study []. Besides, this study did not collect the uniquely identifiable information (e.g., IDs), no information in the database could be traced to the subjects. Considering the minimal risk of information leakage and subjects’ protection in the process of administrative review, a formal ethical review was not applied in this study. Nevertheless, this study observed international statutes and national legislation on ethics in research involving human beings. The informed consent process was conducted before the survey. An informed statement, including information of the research and measures to prevent information leakage was presented shown to the participants. Each participant signed a written informed consent statement to ensure voluntary participation.

: Not Applicable.

: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research and authorship. As the corresponding author, Chun Chang, is a member of the editorial board of this journal, and Chang has not participated in the review or publication of this manuscript.