Study Information: ¡mZAP! (Zancudos, Ambiente y Protección): Developing mobile strategies for
insect-borne disease control with communities in Costa Rica

Universidad de Ciencias Médicas (UCIMED), Costa Rica: Principal Investigator: Carmen Di Mare, MD;
Sub-Investigators: Esteban Avendaño, MD, Sebastián Ospina Henao, MD, Darshell Guillén Femenias,MD,
IreneHernández Saborío, MD; Community Liason: Bach. Ana Laura Méndez García
University of Rochester, New York, USA: Principal Investigator: Timothy Dye, PhD,
Sub-Investigator: José G Pérez Ramos, PhD

This form describes a research study that is being conducted jointly by the University of Rochester and the Universidad de Ciencias Médicas (UCIMED).
The purpose of this study is to test and evaluate a crowdsourced, mapping community engagement app tool, termed ¡mZAP! (Zancudos, Ambiente y Protección), created for the various communities in Costa Rica.
With mZAP! we want to identify risks to environmental health on a map and achieve community initiatives or resolutions to reduce or combat risks. We estimate that approximately 1000 people will take part in this research study.

To participate in this study you will be:

  • required to be 18 years or older and authorize your participation in Spanish language.
  • complete an initial 15-20 minute online survey with topics related to your health, your opinion about the environment, and your opinion about the use of technology. In this survey you will provide us with an email that will be used only to track your participation during the study.
  • use ¡mZAP! for the recognition of environmental risks in your community through mapping, comments,
    use of the “like” option, reports, and messages
  • answer a survey after 6 months into this phase of the study.

During your participation in the study investigators will track your reports, resolutions, likes, location (only while you are using the application), messages sent using the application and when you share the application with members of your community.
We will not collect personal information that can identify you.

Risks. The risks of this study are that the privacy of your participation could be violated. There is a risk that your personal information will be exposed when you submit reports or solutions in the application, there is also the risk that you will disclose your personal information (for example your name) to other users. To reduce this risk, you can choose to generate these reports anonymously and avoid mentioning your name in the reports. If this occurs, we will take steps to protect the information you share. There is a risk that community members could have disagreements about the report and/or any proposed solutions.
You can report any post that you feel was inappropriate or offensive to the investigators of the study. Investigators will be also monitoring the application to detect any potential problems that may arise during the testing period.
Measures have been taken so that only the investigation team is aware of their participation and it will never be disclosed, except as required by the authorities that supervise and regulate the conduct of investigations. You are advised to remain anonymous in all study communication.
We will not collect personal information that can identify you.

Benefits. The only possible benefit for you is that a health problem related to the environment is resolved by managing the situation in the application of mapping and monitoring of environmental situations by your community.

Payment. You will not receive any compensation for participating in this study. The University of Rochester and Universidad de Ciencias Médicas (UCIMED) makes every effort to keep the information collected from you private. Information that can identify you such as name and exact address of residence will not be collected. In order to do so, we will store data relating to this research study in a secure manner. Sometimes, however, researchers need to share information that may identify you with people that work for the University and/or regulators, who are under the obligation not to disclose data that can identify you. If this does happen, we will take all necessary precautions to protect the information you have provided. Results of the research may be presented at meetings or in publications, but any identifying information will not be used.
In order to conduct the research study, we have to get your permission to collect personal research study information, we have to track your reports, resolutions, likes, messages, location (while you use the app) and sharing instances of the app. For the survey implementation, we will have to collect limited personal information including your opinion about your health, your community and the environment. This information will help us to later analyze your survey responses.

Your permission to participate in the study will not expire unless you tell us you would not like to continue in th study. We will keep the information we collect from you indefinitely. Your participation in this research study is completely voluntary. You are free to participate or to withdraw at any time, for whatever reason.
No matter what decision you make, there will be no penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled.

For more information or questions about this research:
You may contact Dr. Carmen Di Mare at UCIMED +506 2549-0249 extension 1249 or the email address
investigadores@mzapcr.com

Please contact the UCIMED Scientific Ethics Committee +506 2291-6754 for the following reasons:

  •  You wish to talk to someone other than the research staff about your rights as a research subject;
  • To voice concerns about the research;
  • To provide input concerning the research process;
  • and in the event that the research study staff could not be reached.

If you have additional questions about this study to decide your participation, you can send an email to
consultas@mzapcr.com.

you can download the application by click here

CEC en PDF