Consent Form

Weight Bias and Stigma Resource, Consent form for BalancedView course participants

1. Who is conducting the evaluation?

The BalancedView course and associated evaluation is a project undertaken by the Provincial Health Services Authority.

Project team:

Project Managers at the PHSA: Kiera Bailey, 604-707-6396, Charlene King, 604-707-6378

2. Why are we conducting this evaluation?

Research shows weight stigma is a problem across society, and may also exist within health care. Currently, very little is known about how to address weight stigma. In response to this, we have developed an online training program for health professionals in BC. As a health professional in BC, your feedback will be used to learn about promising practices in addressing weight stigma.

3. Evaluation procedures

To participate in the evaluation, you will begin by taking a pre-course, five-minute questionnaire about your beliefs and knowledge about weight. Following this you will be directed to our 5-module course. Participating in this course will take approximately 2.5 hours. The course may take less or more time than this depending on how extensively you want to engage with the material and how long you take on each web page. You may sign out from the course at any time and resume at a later time or date that suits your schedule. In the last module, after you have completed the course, you will be asked to complete a questionnaire, so we can learn what your experience was like with the course.

 During the course you will be provided with the opportunity to engage in various learning activities, including a quiz to measure your attitudes about weight, scripted learning reflections, other short quizzes and to watch health care videos where you as the participant are invited to identify and discuss weight stigma. Information you provide to us through these activities will be included in evaluation. If you participate in activities during the course, it is assumed you are consenting to that information being included in evaluation.

 4. Evaluation results

The main findings will be reported in a final evaluation report. No direct or indirect identifying information will be shared in the report.

5. How will your privacy be maintained?

Your privacy and confidentiality will be protected. When you enter information as part of this study, this information will be securely stored on a database on a password-protected server owned by Digital Ocean in Toronto, Ontario. Digital Ocean is a company that provides server services and hosts data. See https://www.digitalocean.com/ for more information. Only the project team as listed above and a contractor at Mellenger Interactive, in Vancouver, BC, who maintains the BalancedView website, will have access to this database. Your directly identifiable information (e.g. name, contact information or IP address) will only be accessible to the project team and IT company Unique indirectly identifying information will be removed from completed reports of this study. No information that discloses your identity will be released unless required by law.

Participants who complete the course may be eligible to count this towards continuing medical education accreditation.

6. Contact information about this course

If you have questions about this course and associated evaluation, please contact one of the staff working on this project. Contact information is listed at the top of this form.

7. Participant consent

Taking part in this course is entirely up to you. You have the right to refuse to participate. If you participate in the pre-course questionnaire and course activities it is assumed that consent has been given for information you provide through that process to be used for evaluation. If you participate, you have the right to withdraw from the evaluation associated with this course at any point, without giving a reason. If you wish to withdraw please contact a member of the project team as listed at the top of this form.