Schwarz, Tanja
Schmidt, Andrea E.
Bobek, Julia
Ladurner, Joy
Article History
Received: 7 October 2021
Accepted: 5 August 2022
First Online: 14 August 2022
Declarations
:
: The Austrian National Public Health Institute (GOEG) is owned by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection and regulated by federal law (Bundesgesetz über die Gesundheit Österreich GmbH (GÖGG), BGBl. I Nr. 132/2006). According to this national legislation, GOEG is entitled to collect, present, analyze and evaluate data relevant to the health status of the population and to fulfil the tasks assigned to it by law. Interview studies and other analyses carried out by GOEG on behalf of the Ministry of Health therefore require no approval from an ethics committee. Further, authorization from an ethics committee is not needed or actually possible (only for clinical trials) for this type of study in Austria.This research was commissioned in the course of the Health Reform agreement according to Article 15a of the Federal Constitution on target-based health governance and the agreement according to Article 15a on the organisation and financing of the health care system, the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection. A national expert group consisting of representatives of the Federal State of Austria (Ministry of Health), the nine Austrian provinces, and social health insurance institutions who are in charge of driving the healthcare reform commissioned and evaluated this research in compliance with ethical, legal and data protection aspects.Written informed consent was obtained from all participants before participating in the investigation. They were free to withdraw from the study at any time. The semi-structured interview guide was provided to participants prior to the study. This information was orally reiterated to each participant at the beginning of the interview before the researcher asked the participant to confirm whether he or she was voluntary and consenting to participate, and if he or she agreed to have the interview audio-recorded. The template for the consent form is available on request. Data were properly anonymized, and handling of personal data was in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation GDPR and the Austrian Data Protection Act.
: Not applicable.
: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.