van Bergen, Diana D.
Eikelenboom, Merijn
van de Looij-Jansen, Petra P.
Article History
Received: 2 June 2017
Accepted: 21 December 2017
First Online: 17 January 2018
Ethics approval and consent to participate
: Data were obtained from the Youth Health Monitor Rotterdam (YMR), a longitudinal youth health surveillance system carried out by the the Rotterdam-Rijnmond Public Health Services (GGD, Gemeentelijke gezondheidsdienst) in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Activities of the preventive youth health care system of Rotterdam, of which the RYM is part, have been approved by the Dutch government (Ministery of Health). The data of the RYM are protected by the Municipal Health Service of Rotterdam, which follows the Code of Conduct Health Research of the Netherlands. Adolescents received verbal information about the questionnaires each time they were applied, and their parents received written information regarding every assessment. Adolescents and their parents were free to decline participation. The questionnaires were completed on a voluntary basis, and confidentiality of responses was guaranteed. Observational research (ie, not experimental) with confidential data gathered in routine health care does not fall within the ambit of Dutch Medical Research Involving Human Subjects Act (WMO), and therefore does not require the approval of an ethics review board; separate informed consent was therefore not required. [CitationRef removed] Data were de-identified before the analyses.
: Not applicable
: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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