Bernet, Niklaus S.
Everink, Irma H. J.
Hahn, Sabine
Bauer, Silvia
Schols, Jos M. G. A.
Article History
Received: 8 May 2023
Accepted: 7 March 2024
First Online: 13 March 2024
Declarations
:
: This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and with the approval of the following ethics committees: In Austria the study was approved by the medical ethics committee of the Medical University of Graz (Ek-Nr 20–192 ex 08/09); in Switzerland Swiss ethics and the cantonal ethics committees had classified the measurement in 2012 as a quality measurement and therefore declared that the LPZ measurement is not within their purview, as it does not fall under the Swiss Human Research Act (see Bernet et al. [CitationRef removed] for further details). In addition, the Ethics Advisory Board of the Bern University of Applied Sciences approved in 2022 that the anonymized data from the LPZ measurement may be further used without further approval at a cantonal ethics committee (Ref. EAB2022_012). All patients or their legal representatives received written information about the measurement. Written (in Austria) and verbal (in Switzerland) informed consent was obtained from all participants or their legal representatives. Verbal informed consent was authorised in Switzerland by Swiss ethics (Swiss Association of Research Ethics Committees) and the cantonal ethics committees, as described in detail in Bernet et al. [CitationRef removed]. Patients were informed that they could withdraw their consent at any time without justification and without consequences.
: Not applicable.
: The authors declare no competing interests.