Paying research subjects: participants' perspectives

Objective-To explore the opinions of unpaid healthy volunteers on the payme nt of research subjects. Design-Prospective cohort. Setting-Southern Alberta, Canada. Participants-Medically eligible persons responding to recruiting advertisem ents for a randomised vaccine trial were invited to take part in a study of informed consent at the paint at which they formally consented or refused trial participation. Of 72 invited, 67 (62 trial consenters, 5 trial refuse rs) returned questionnaires at baseline and 54 at follow-up. Outcome measures-Proportions of persons who agreed or disagreed with three close-ended statements on the payment of research subjects; themes and cate gories identified by content analysis of responses to an open-ended questio n. Results-A minority (43.3%) agreed with paying either patient or healthy vol unteer participants. Opinions did Hot change over time. Participants' comme nts: addressed: benefits and drawbacks to research participation; benefits and drawbacks to paying research participants; conditions under which payme nt of research subjects would be acceptable, and the nature of acceptable r ecognition Acceptable conditions were to improve problematic recruitment, t o reimburse costs, and to recognise participants, particularly for their ti me investment. Both non-monetary and monetary recognition of volunteers wer e thought to be appropriate. Conclusions-Most unpaid volunteers disagreed with paying research participa nts. The themes arising from their comments are similar to those that have been raised by ethicists and suggest that recognising the time and effort o f participants should receive greater emphasis than presently occurs.