Data Protection in Sociological Health Research: A Critical Narrative about the Challenges of a New Regulatory Landscape

Hélder Raposo, Sara Melo and Catarina Egreja
Additional contact information
Hélder Raposo: Lisbon School of Health Technology – Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon, Portugal
Sara Melo: Higher Institute of Social Work of Oporto, Portugal
Catarina Egreja: Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar Egas Moniz (CiiEM), Instituto Universitário Egas Moniz (IUEM), Monte de Caparica, Portugal

Sociological Research Online, 2022, vol. 27, issue 4, 1060-1076

Abstract: The recent implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) establishes a set of formal requirements that reinforce personal data protection, namely, those concerning the collection, treatment, and dissemination of data on research participants. With the application of this new legal provision at the European level, new types of restrictions are emerging, whose nature and reach intensify the tension between demands for privacy and scientific freedom in research. In this article, we take as a reference an ongoing research taking place in Portugal, in the field of Sociology of Health, concerning the consumption of medicines by professionals exposed to high-performance pressure. Our main objective is to identify and analyse the implications of regulatory challenges faced in the research process and how the researchers managed and overcame them. We present a critical narrative that sheds light on the nature of the choices taken while also assessing the practical implications for the operationalisation of the research. We conclude by noting that, despite the benefits that may flow from the application of GDPR, the new requirements regarding the protection of personal data may override the ethical principles of scientific research and strengthen regulatory restrictions on conducting research. In the research concerned, the significant practical implications were indirect access to participants, a more time-consuming process in terms of participant adherence and a temporal discrepancy between the different stages of recruitment.

Keywords: data protection; regulatory challenges; research ethics; sociological health research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13607804221107676 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:27:y:2022:i:4:p:1060-1076

DOI: 10.1177/13607804221107676

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Sociological Research Online
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().