ArticleBMC medical research methodology2011
Opt-out as an acceptable method of obtaining consent in medical research: a short report.
Article in BMC medical research methodology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 69 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
69 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Reducing burden from respiratory infections in refugees and immigrants: a systematic review of interventions in OECD, EU, EEA and EU-applicant countries.BMC infectious diseases · 2021Pooled it
- Cancer survivorship monitoring systems for the collection of patient-reported outcomes: a systematic narrative review of international approaches.Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2017Pooled it
- Prevention and treatment of incontinence-associated dermatitis through optimising care: the PREVENT-IAD Synopsis.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2026Trial
- Architecting Process of Care: A randomized controlled study evaluating the impact of providing nonadherence information and pharmacist assistance to physicians.Health services research · 2020Trial
- Trial
- Participant recruitment in sensitive surveys: a comparative trial of 'opt in' versus 'opt out' approaches.BMC medical research methodology · 2013Trial
- Understanding avoidance of medical surveillance for hand-arm vibrations in Sweden: a mixed-methods approach.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Oncologic outcome and safety profile of first-line enfortumab vedotin plus pembrolizumab vs. conventional chemotherapy in advanced urothelial cancer.Exploration of targeted anti-tumor therapy · 2026Article
- Four-dimensional flow provides incremental diagnostic value over echocardiography in aortic stenosis.Open heart · 2025Observational
- Prognosis of aggressive adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma with central nervous system infiltration and utility of CD7 versus CADM1 flowcytometric plots of cerebrospinal fluid.Annals of hematology · 2025Article
- Utilizing artificial intelligence for the detection of hemarthrosis in hemophilia using point-of-care ultrasonography.Research and practice in thrombosis and haemostasis · 2024Article
- Assessment of the relationship between central venous pressure waveform and the severity of tricuspid valve regurgitation using data science.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Automated Quantification of Simple and Complex Aortic Flow Using 2D Phase Contrast MRI.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Article
- Difference of oncological efficacy between two immune checkpoint inhibitors following first-line platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with unresectable, metastatic, advanced urothelial carcinoma: a multicenter real-world Japanese cohort.International journal of clinical oncology · 2024Article
- Vocational rehabilitative decisions after symptoms and findings consistent with hand-arm vibration syndrome in the Swedish surveillance system - a mixed-method design.Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England) · 2024Article
- Waiving the consent requirement to mitigate bias in observational precision medicine research.International journal for equity in health · 2024Article
- Development and validation of AI-derived segmentation of four-chamber cine cardiac magnetic resonance.European radiology experimental · 2024Article
- Improving thePalliative medicine · 2024Article
- Validation of 2D flow MRI for helical and vortical flows.Open heart · 2024Article
- Validation of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer risk stratification updated in the 2021 European Association of Urology guidelines.BJUI compass · 2024Article
9 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA prospective cohort study was set up to investigate a possible association between antibiotic prescribing and antibiotic resistance of E. coli urinary tract infection in the community. Participation of patients with urinary tract infection was obtained through an opt-out methodology. This short paper reports on the acceptability of the opt-out recruitment approach.
methodsParticipating practices (22) were requested to send a urine sample from all patients presenting with symptoms of urinary tract infection. Upon receipt of the sample in the laboratory, a letter explaining the study, an opt-out form and a freepost envelope were sent to all adult patients. A website with additional information and including an 'opt-out' button was set up for the study.
resultsA total of 1362 urine samples were submitted by the 22 participating practices representing 1178 adult patients of whom 193 actively responded to the letter: 142 opted out by letter, 15 through the website, 2 by phone and 12 sent the letter back without indication, making a total of 171 patients or 14.5% opt-out; the remaining 22 patients (1.9%) explicitly opted in. The total group consisted of 80% women and the mean age was 50.9 years (sd 20.8). No significant differences were found between patients who participated and those who opted out in terms of age, gender or whether the urine sample was positive or not.
conclusionsOverall the opt-out method was well received and participation in the study reached 85.5%. The low number of complaints (2) indicates that this is a generally acceptable method of patient recruitment. The 14.5% opt-out shows that it effectively empowers patients to decline participation. The similarity between patients opting out and the rest of the patients is reassuring for extrapolation of the results of the study.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.