Danabal, Kenneth Grace Mascarenhas
Magesh, Shiva Shankar
Saravanan, Siddharth
Gopichandran, Vijayaprasad
Article History
Received: 2 August 2021
Accepted: 16 September 2021
First Online: 21 September 2021
Declarations
:
: The study was reviewed by the Institutional Ethics Committee of the ESIC Medical College and PGIMSR, KK Nagar, Chennai by an expedited review process. The research was conducted in adherence to the National Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical and Health Research involving Human Participants by the Indian Council of Medical Research, 2017 and the Declaration of Helsinki. The proposal was approved with IEC No. IEC/2021/1/20 dated 20.06.2021. Verbal informed consent was obtained from all participants before collection of data. The institutional ethics committee permitted a verbal consent process in order to minimize the exchange of potential fomites in the form of paper and pen and limit the possibility of transmission of COVID 19. COVID 19 precautions including face mask, hand sanitation, physical distancing were practiced during the data collection to safeguard the researchers as well as the respondents. Respondents were provided adequate privacy during the interview and confidentiality of their information was protected.
: Not Applicable.
: The authors do not have any competing interests to declare.