Public health research and the role of human research ethics committees in promotion of ethical standards for conducting research involving humans

Rationale: The purpose of this paper is to provide information about the role of Australian Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs) in public health research and to identify the main ethical issues which are considered in the process of ethical approval of research protocols.

Objectives: The main purposes of the paper are to identify the main ethical issues which occur in public health research and to analyse the legal basis which underpins ethics committee’s functions.

Methods: In order to identify the contemporary ethical issues in public health research a qualitative analysis was used. This included two components: -  Literature analysis of the legal basis underpinning the work of HRECs,- Analysis of the outcomes from an Australian survey of HREC members

 The results from a literature review and a case-study conducted among 41 randomly selected HRECs members from five Australian states were interpreted.

 Major results:

The main ethical issues that arise in public health research can be defined as: obtaining informed consent, protection of safety and welfare of participants in research, respect of privacy, confidentiality, measurement of risk- benefit ratio and conflict of interest. There is a well structured legal basis which provides guidance for the researchers, institutions and ethics committees in the process of ethical review of the research protocols. The comparative analysis shows the similarity of ethical issues which occur in public health research in Bulgaria and in Australia.

Major conclusions: The “hot topics” in public health, such as obesity and physical inactivity, environmental health, HIV/AIDS, smoking, excessive alcohol and drug use, social and mental health, indigenous health etc., have important ethical implications that need to be considered. Australian HRECs will therefore have a large responsibility for the final decision regarding public health research, and will need to carefully balance the interests of the public with those of the individual.