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Article History

Received: 7 August 2019

Accepted: 15 February 2021

First Online: 4 March 2021

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: This study was carried out in consideration of the Declaration of Helsinki. It was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Lübeck on April 13, 2016 (File reference CitationRef removed–077). This ethical approval comprised that the need for obtaining explicit written consent from the participants was not felt necessary as this postal survey was planned and executed as collection of anonymous data. GPs were fully informed in the cover letter about the consequences of participation, especially that the return of the questionnaires would result in data publication and will be seen as informed consent for participation. In line with the ethical approval, the return of the completed questionnaire was seen as consent to participate. All returned questionnaires were filed, numbered consecutively with an identification number and entered into a SPSS database.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.