Abstract
A study was conducted among participants in an antiretroviral therapy (ART) clinical trial to determine how voluntary their participation was and their satisfaction to the consent process.
A semi structured questionnaire was administered to 88 of the 180 people enrolled in the study at the time of interview and who were willing to participate.
Participation in the study was driven mainly by unmet health needs and participant reported benefits (free drug and tests) as the primary motive to participate in the research. The absence of alternatives to access medical services creates challenges to voluntary participation. Most of the participants saw the consent process as satisfactory, the satisfaction might be based on the hope the treatment is giving them and on the trust they have on investigators and the institution. It is then of importance that research participants be given enough time to reflect on the information provided during the consent process before obtaining consent from them.
