Abstract

This study is aimed to address the problems associated with questionnaire-based research. Twelve hypothetical cases are presented and checked for ethical validity. The problems are categorized under seven headings: Whether the participation of the subject is truly voluntary; whether consent to participate in the study has been obtained or proxy consent is required; whether consent to participate has been obtained from "authentic" participants and their privacy is protected; whether participants are fully informed before they consent to participate; whether the validity of questionnaire-based research has been determined in terms of its possible harm; how the roles of the research ethics committee are defined; and what content should be presented in reports and articles. It is important that the ethics of questionnaire-based research should be reviewed with consideration to maintaining a balance between the protection of a subject's human rights and the promotion of research for the improvement of medical science and health care