The ideas and beliefs underpinning the discussions guide students through engaging dialogues as they achieve the desired learning outcomes/competencies associated with their course in a manner that empowers them to organize, integrate, apply, Current Ethical and Legal Issues in Epidemiology Current Ethical and Legal Issues in Epidemiology and critically appraise their knowledge to their selected field of practice.

Current Ethical and Legal Issues in Epidemiology

Epidemiological information is used for the effective planning and management of diseases within society. Epidemiologists are tasked with researching diseases, their effects, and patterns within society. Consistently, owing to the criticality of epidemiology in promoting public health, the field is guided by specific ethical and legal guidelines. The ethical and legal issues affecting the practice also change by the day because of the constantly varying scientific and social contexts. A major ethical issue in epidemiology is informed consent, which requires that research participants make a free choice and legal authorization to be involved in the research (Mello & Wang, 2020). However, the issue of informed consent may be conflicting, especially among socioeconomically deprived persons who may be reluctant to decline participation if the researcher is considered someone in authority. Socioeconomically deprived persons are also more likely to consent to research offering financial incentives.

Another critical ethical issue in epidemiology is privacy and confidentiality. There are growing concerns regarding the handling of participants’ personal information, especially in the era of big data (Salerno et al., 2017). Concerns about privacy and confidentiality may deter some people from participating in epidemiological studies. Additionally, conflict of interest has also emerged as a critical ethical and legal issue in epidemiology. Some researchers have the tendency to include persons who were not involved in the study. It is important that conflict of interest and sponsorship be clearly stated in all epidemiological studies (Kumar et al., 2018). Disregarding the ethical issues discussed above may have legal implications and discredit the credibility of epidemiological studies. It is, therefore, important for all epidemiologists to consider these issues and focus on the minimization of risks.

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References

Kumar, C. R., Shantaji, T., & Gaidhane, A. (2018). Ethical Issues in Epidemiological Studies. International Journal of Clinical and Biomedical Research, 33-35.

Mello, M. M., & Wang, C. J. (2020). Ethics and governance for digital disease surveillance. Science, 368(6494), 951-954.