Informed consent in biomedical studies on aging: survey of four journals

Abstract

Issues for 1993 and 1994 of the four journals with the highest impact factor in the category “geriatrics and gerontology” of the 1993 Science Citation Index were examined3: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Journal of Gerontology: Medical Section, Mechanisms of Ageing and Development and Age and Ageing. We found 586 articles reporting research in humans; case studies were excluded. We recorded the type of subjects, the study design, and whether informed consent procedures and approval of an ethics committee were mentioned. We also asked the editors of the four journals about their policies on these issues.