Informed consent is essential for research involving human subjects.
However, little is known about whether researchers manage to communicate to potential study participants the required information as outlined in the Helsinki Declaration. The potential participants in a developing country may be illiterate and may have limited experience with medical care and research. The researchers' communication skills are particularly important in such situations. We studied informed consent among pregnant women participating in a community-based study of iron supplementation. The study was conducted in rural Bangladesh in 1998 and involved 105 women.