Who's Doing the Math? Are We Really Compensating Research Participants?

Overview

Journal J Empir Res Hum Res Ethics

Specialty Medical Ethics

Date 2010 Sep 14

PMID 20831421

Citations 5

Authors

Elizabeth Ripley

Francis Macrina

Monika Markowitz

Chris Gennings

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Although compensation for expenses to participants in research projects is considered important and the primary reason for paying, there is no evidence to support that investigators and IRB members actually calculate participant cost. Payment recommendations for six hypothetical studies were obtained from a national survey of IRB chairpersons (N = 353) and investigators (N = 495). Survey respondents also recommended payment for specific study procedures. We calculated participant cost for the six hypothetical cases both by procedures and by time involvement. A large percentage recommended only token payments for survey, registry, and medical record review studies. Most chose payment for pharmaceutical studies but the recommended payment did not compensate for calculated costs. Results suggest that compensation and reimbursement as the primary reasons for paying research participants may not match actual practice.

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