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Experiences from a community advisory Board in the Implementation of early access to ART for all in Eswatini: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Engaging communities in community-based health research is increasingly being adopted in low- and middle-income countries. The use of community advisory boards (CABs) is one method of practicing community involvement in health research. To date, few studies provide in-depth accounts of t...

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Autores principales: Mlambo, Charmaine Khudzie, Vernooij, Eva, Geut, Roos, Vrolings, Eliane, Shongwe, Buyisile, Jiwan, Saima, Fleming, Yvette, Khumalo, Gavin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6636129/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31311526
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12910-019-0384-8
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author Mlambo, Charmaine Khudzie
Vernooij, Eva
Geut, Roos
Vrolings, Eliane
Shongwe, Buyisile
Jiwan, Saima
Fleming, Yvette
Khumalo, Gavin
author_facet Mlambo, Charmaine Khudzie
Vernooij, Eva
Geut, Roos
Vrolings, Eliane
Shongwe, Buyisile
Jiwan, Saima
Fleming, Yvette
Khumalo, Gavin
author_sort Mlambo, Charmaine Khudzie
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Engaging communities in community-based health research is increasingly being adopted in low- and middle-income countries. The use of community advisory boards (CABs) is one method of practicing community involvement in health research. To date, few studies provide in-depth accounts of the strategies that CAB members use to practice community engagement. We assessed the perspectives, experiences and practices of the first local CAB in Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland), which was implemented as part of the MaxART Early Access to ART for All study. METHODS: Trained Swazi research assistants conducted two focus group discussions and 13 semi-structured interviews with CAB members who had been part of the MaxART study for at least 2.5 years. Interviews explored CAB composition and recruitment, the activities of CAB members, the mechanisms used to engage with communities and the challenges they faced in their role. RESULTS: The MaxART CAB played an active role in the implementation of the Early Access to Art for All study, and activities mainly focused on: (1) promoting ethical conduct, in particular privacy, consent and confidentiality; (2) communication and education, communicating about the study and educating the community on the benefits of HIV testing and early access to HIV treatment; and (3) liaising between the community and the research team. Strategies for interacting with communities were varied and included attending general community meetings, visiting health facilities and visiting public places such as cattle dipping tanks, buses, bars and churches. Differences in the approach to community engagement between CAB members living in the study areas and those residing outside were identified. CONCLUSION: The experiences of the first CAB in Eswatini demonstrate that community engagement using CABs is a valuable mechanism for engaging communities in implementation studies. Considerations that could impact CAB functioning include clearly defining the scope of the CAB, addressing issues of CAB independence, the CAB budget, providing emotional support for CAB members, and providing continuous training and capacity building. These issues should be addressed during the early stages of CAB formation in order to optimize functioning.
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spelling pubmed-66361292019-07-25 Experiences from a community advisory Board in the Implementation of early access to ART for all in Eswatini: a qualitative study Mlambo, Charmaine Khudzie Vernooij, Eva Geut, Roos Vrolings, Eliane Shongwe, Buyisile Jiwan, Saima Fleming, Yvette Khumalo, Gavin BMC Med Ethics Research Article BACKGROUND: Engaging communities in community-based health research is increasingly being adopted in low- and middle-income countries. The use of community advisory boards (CABs) is one method of practicing community involvement in health research. To date, few studies provide in-depth accounts of the strategies that CAB members use to practice community engagement. We assessed the perspectives, experiences and practices of the first local CAB in Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland), which was implemented as part of the MaxART Early Access to ART for All study. METHODS: Trained Swazi research assistants conducted two focus group discussions and 13 semi-structured interviews with CAB members who had been part of the MaxART study for at least 2.5 years. Interviews explored CAB composition and recruitment, the activities of CAB members, the mechanisms used to engage with communities and the challenges they faced in their role. RESULTS: The MaxART CAB played an active role in the implementation of the Early Access to Art for All study, and activities mainly focused on: (1) promoting ethical conduct, in particular privacy, consent and confidentiality; (2) communication and education, communicating about the study and educating the community on the benefits of HIV testing and early access to HIV treatment; and (3) liaising between the community and the research team. Strategies for interacting with communities were varied and included attending general community meetings, visiting health facilities and visiting public places such as cattle dipping tanks, buses, bars and churches. Differences in the approach to community engagement between CAB members living in the study areas and those residing outside were identified. CONCLUSION: The experiences of the first CAB in Eswatini demonstrate that community engagement using CABs is a valuable mechanism for engaging communities in implementation studies. Considerations that could impact CAB functioning include clearly defining the scope of the CAB, addressing issues of CAB independence, the CAB budget, providing emotional support for CAB members, and providing continuous training and capacity building. These issues should be addressed during the early stages of CAB formation in order to optimize functioning. BioMed Central 2019-07-16 /pmc/articles/PMC6636129/ /pubmed/31311526 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12910-019-0384-8 Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Mlambo, Charmaine Khudzie
Vernooij, Eva
Geut, Roos
Vrolings, Eliane
Shongwe, Buyisile
Jiwan, Saima
Fleming, Yvette
Khumalo, Gavin
Experiences from a community advisory Board in the Implementation of early access to ART for all in Eswatini: a qualitative study
title Experiences from a community advisory Board in the Implementation of early access to ART for all in Eswatini: a qualitative study
title_full Experiences from a community advisory Board in the Implementation of early access to ART for all in Eswatini: a qualitative study
title_fullStr Experiences from a community advisory Board in the Implementation of early access to ART for all in Eswatini: a qualitative study
title_full_unstemmed Experiences from a community advisory Board in the Implementation of early access to ART for all in Eswatini: a qualitative study
title_short Experiences from a community advisory Board in the Implementation of early access to ART for all in Eswatini: a qualitative study
title_sort experiences from a community advisory board in the implementation of early access to art for all in eswatini: a qualitative study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6636129/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31311526
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12910-019-0384-8
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