Tarraf, Hesham
Aydin, Omur
Mungan, Dilsad
Albader, Mohammad
Mahboub, Bassam
Doble, Adam
Lahlou, Aaicha
Tariq, Luqman
Aziz, Fayaz
El Hasnaoui, Abdelkader http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1059-5875
Funding for this research was provided by:
GlaxoSmithKline
Article History
Received: 9 September 2017
Accepted: 9 April 2018
First Online: 11 May 2018
Ethics approval and consent to participate
: The study followed guidelines for good epidemiological practice (GEP) and pertinent local rules and regulations for each participating country. The protocol and amendments were submitted to the appropriate independent ethics committee in each country for approval. The following ethics committees approved the SNAPSHOT program: In Egypt, the Ministry of Health and Population, Central Directorate for Research and Health Development; In Kuwait, the Kuwait University Health Sciences Centre Ethical Committee; in Turkey, the Ankara University Medical Faculty Ethics Committee; and in the UAE, the Ethics and Research Committee of the University of Sharjah. In Saudi Arabia, no ethics approval was required, since SNAPSHOT was an epidemiological, cross sectional, population based study and as such is out of scope of the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) approval and/or notification. The protocol specified that oral consent to participate in the study was required. At the start of the telephone call, subjects were asked to provide their consent to participate verbally, and this information was recorded in the CAPI system by the interviewee. Participants taking part in the study did not receive any financial compensation and participation in the study did not influence the medical management of the patient. It was not possible to link the telephone number dialled and the respondent’s data in the study database. All data collected was kept confidential and anonymous.
: AEH, FA, and LT are employees of and shareholders in GSK, which funded the SNAPSHOT study. HT is currently also employed by GSK but at the time the study was conducted he participated in his capacity as Professor of medicine and allergy at the University of Cairo. AL is a director of MS Health, the clinical and epidemiological research company that implemented this study on behalf of GSK. AD is a director of Foxymed, a medical communication and consultancy company which participated in the design of the study and the interpretation of the results on behalf of GSK. The authors declare to have no further conflict of interest.
: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.