An unexplored ethical issue in clinical research: Disclosure of individual findings in the Creando Posibilidades [creating possibilities] study

Individual disclosure refers to the presumptive ethical responsibility of an investigator to communicate to a study participant information that was collected as a part of a research study protocol and is specific to the individual. Currently, there are no federal regulatory guidelines specifying the conditions and management of disclosure of health‐related individual‐specific information. In this report, the authors discuss the challenges associated with individual disclosure in the context of a longitudinal descriptive study. Arguments favoring disclosure and those challenging disclosure as a general ethical duty are presented. Finally, strategies for addressing individual disclosure are discussed using a research exemplar in which risk behaviors related to health outcomes were measured. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health 36:311–319, 2013Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98287/1/21533_ftp.pd