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Consent to be a Research Subject - Pakistan

The Aga Khan University

Project: Cranky Uncle Vaccine game

Information about this study Hello. My name is Dr. Abdul Momin Kazi and I work with the Aga Khan University Pakistan. I want to inform you about a study we are doing to find out if you would like to participate in it. You are being asked to participate in a research study. This research is being conducted to assess the effectiveness of a game that teaches critical thinking. The game covers the topic of vaccination. The survey and game will take up to 60 minutes to complete. For this online research project, we aim to recruit 1000 Pakistani research participants (500 Urdu and 500 Roman Urdu) from two target audience groups: i) young adults (aged 18-30) and ii) community health workers. You will be expected to play the entire game (via app or web browser) and complete pre- and post-in-game surveys. These surveys are designed to help us measure the game’s effectiveness in:

  • Improving general attitudes on vaccines
  • Increasing participant intent to vaccinate (vaccine acceptance)
  • Strengthening participant ability to correctly discern vaccine facts from misinformation (resilience to misinformation)

We will also ask participants to tell us what stood out in the game and what they think needs changing, to help us further improve the game’s design prior to public launch in Pakistan.

Procedures When you first open the Cranky Uncle game, you will be invited to participate in research. If you consent, you will fill out a research quiz measuring demographics, vaccine attitudes, and ability to detect fallacies in vaccine misinformation. If you choose not to participate in research, you can still proceed to play the game, but your data will not be included in the analysis. After completing the survey, you can then proceed to play the Cranky Uncle Vaccine game, which explains logical fallacies commonly found in misinformation, as well as present quiz questions allowing you to practice spotting different types of fallacies. If you complete all ten explanations of misinformation fallacies (and had already consented to fill out the pre-game research survey), then you are prompted to fill out the same research survey. You can choose to keep the game on your phone or delete it after completing the research. The app does not collect any personal data other than location to ensure that you are Pakistan-based and contact details (name and phone number) de-identified from survey responses in order for participants to obtain reimbursement.

Why were you chosen for this research? You were chosen for this research because you have indicated that you are an adult living in Karachi, Pakistan.

Consenting to participate and withdrawing from the research You may decide not to participate in the research after reading this explanatory statement and have the right to withdraw from the research at any time. To withdraw, follow the Consent link on the About screen within the game – then uncheck “Allow collection of anonymous game data.” This will automatically withdraw you from the research study.

Possible benefits and risks to participants This game aims to help individual participants become more accurately informed about vaccination and better able to identify vaccine misinformation. There are no risks to participants and all information that is recorded will be completely confidential. Your contact details will be collected in the post-game research survey solely for the purpose of sending a reimbursement for your time. A sum of 2000 Pakistani Rupees will be sent to each of the participants as a refund for their internet expenses and compensation for their time upon completion of the post- game survey.

Confidentiality The data recorded through this survey is completely anonymous at the point of collection, and the research team will not have access to participant’s identifying information. Once collected, the already anonymous individual responses will be summarized for use in reports, journal articles, and conference papers. The fully anonymous data may also be provided to other researchers through an open science platform.

Storage of data Data collected will be stored on a secure, password-protected server and computer and only available to authorized Aga Khan University or University of Melbourne staff.

Contact Information This research is being conducted by Assistant Professor Dr. Abdul Momin Kazi at Aga Khan University, with Dr. John Cook at the University of Melbourne. If you have any questions about this study or to report a research-related problem, you may contact Dr. Abdul Momin Kazi via phone at 021- 34864955. You may also contact Dr. John Cook at the University of Melbourne via email at jocook@unimelb.edu.au.