Article History
Received: 17 July 2019
Accepted: 15 December 2019
First Online: 19 December 2019
Ethics approval and consent to participate
: Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Human Resources Department of the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH), which is the body in Gaza to issue approvals for studies involving humans and responsible for issuing ethical approval. For this a set procedure is followed, which involves review by a committee for confirmation or rejection of ethical approval. The committee has no official name and approved projects get no number, but are filed under the name of their title. However, the committee did give ethical approval to this study. Further approval to conduct the study was obtained from the administrative body of the healthcare centres, where data collection was conducted.Prior to data collection via questionnaires, focus groups or interviews, the purpose of the study was explained to potential participants, it was explained that participation was entirely voluntary, had no impact on health services received or employment status and could be terminated at any time throughout the study. Written consent was obtained from all participants. All data were kept anonymously and an agreement of complete confidentiality was made in every focus group.
: Not applicable.
: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.