Haghighat, Roxanna http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6615-9194
Toska, Elona
Bungane, Nontuthuzelo
Cluver, Lucie
Funding for this research was provided by:
Medical Research Council
National Institute for Health Research (MR/R022372/1)
Nuffield Foundation (CPF/41513)
Janssen Pharmaceuticals
Evidence for HIV Prevention in Southern Africa (MM/EHPSA/UCT/05150014)
Regional Inter-Agency Task Team for Children Affected by AIDS - Eastern and Southern Africa
UNICEF
Research England (0005218)
International AIDS Society (155-Hod; 2018/625-TOS)
UK Research and Innovation Global Challenges Research Fund award (ES/S008101/1)
Clarendon Fund
Economic and Social Research Council (ES/J500112/1, IAA-MT13-003, IAA-MT13-003/1602-KEA-189/K1311-KEA-004)
Clarendon-Green Templeton College Scholarship Fund
Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013/ERC grant agreement no 313421)
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (737476)
USAID
John Fell Fund, University of Oxford (161/033; 103/757)
Leverhulme Trust (PLP-2014-095)
Article History
Received: 12 February 2020
Accepted: 27 December 2020
First Online: 13 January 2021
Ethics approval and consent to participate
: Ethical approval to obtain and analyse raw data was given at four levels. At the university level, ethical approvals for the full study protocol were provided by the University of Oxford (SSD/CUREC2/12–21) and University of Cape Town (CSSR 2013/4; 2017/3). At the provincial government level, ethical approval was given by the Eastern Cape Department of Health and Department of Basic Education. At the healthcare facility level, approvals were obtained through the ethical review boards of each participating healthcare facility. Finally, ethical approval and consent to participate were obtained at the individual participant level, in line with protocols further described in this section. At both study waves, adolescent participants and their caregivers provided voluntary, informed, and written consent for participation, including interviews and access to adolescents’ clinical records. Initial review of patient registers in healthcare facilities was only used to identify eligible participants, and further access to clinical records was obtained only after adolescents consented to study participation. In cases of low literacy among adolescents or caregivers, all information and consent procedures were read aloud in the participant’s preferred language. There were no financial incentives for study participation, but all participants received a certificate of participation, snacks, and a small gift pack including pencils and soap. Adolescents who refused to participate were still given snacks.
: Not applicable.
: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.