Short-Form Video Informed Consent Compared With Written Consent for Adolescents and Young Adults: Randomized Experiment (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Adolescents and young adults have the highest prevalence of e-cigarette use (“vaping”), but they are difficult to enroll in health research studies. Previous studies have found that video consents can improve comprehension and make informed consent procedures more accessible, but the videos in prior studies are much longer than videos on contemporary social media platforms that are popular among young people. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a short-form (90 second) video consent compared to a standard written consent for a vaping cessation study for adolescents and young adults. METHODS We conducted an online experiment with 435 adolescents and young adults (aged 13-24) recruited by an online survey research provider. Each participant was randomly assigned to view either a short-form video consent or a written consent form describing a behavioral study of a social media-based vaping cessation program. Participants completed a post-exposure survey measuring three outcomes: (1) comprehension of the consent information, (2) satisfaction with the consent process, and (3) willingness to participate in the described study. Independent sample T-tests and Chi-square tests were conducted to compare the outcomes between the two groups. RESULTS 435 cases comprised the final analytic sample. Participants who watched the short-form video completed the process in less time (average 4.5 minutes) than the written consent group (5.1 minutes). Participants in the video consent condition reported significantly higher levels of satisfaction with the overall consent process, but no difference in other aspects of satisfaction such as ability to complete consent unassisted and satisfaction with amount of time spent compared to participants who read the written consent. There was no difference in the composite measure of overall comprehension, though in individual measures, participants who watched the short-form video consent performed better in five measures of comprehension about risk, privacy, and procedures, while participants who read the written document consent had better comprehension of one measure of study procedures. There was no difference between the groups in willingness to participate in the described study. CONCLUSIONS Short-form informed consent videos had similar comprehension and superior satisfaction among adolescents and young adults. Short-form-informed consent videos may improve satisfaction with the informed consent process, although video and written consent forms had different strengths with respect to comprehension. Short-form videos may improve study enrollment among adolescents and young adults.