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Article History

Received: 22 October 2020

Accepted: 23 March 2021

First Online: 16 April 2021

Declarations

:

: The study received ethical approval from the National Ethical Review Committee of the National Institute for Medical Research in Tanzania (Thamini Uhai: Ref. NIMR/HQ/R.8a/Vol.IX/2456; Columbia University: Ref. NIMR/HQ/R.8a/Vol.IX/2744; CDC: Ref. NIMR/HQ/R.8c/Vol.I/265). Permission and approval to implement the project was obtained from the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, the Prime Minister’s Office and Local Government officials, district officials and participating health facilities’ in-charges and department heads. Written consent was received from all people interviewed individually. Questionnaires were number-coded thereby keeping the identity of participants anonymous. Verbal consent was received from all focus group discussion participants, as per ethical approval, and confidentiality of participants was maintained at all times; no names of participants were collected. Pregnancy outcomes monitoring data were retrieved retrospectively from routine facility registers without individual patient identifiers. Interviews with people aged 15–17 did not require parental consent. For this study, need for parental consent was waived by the Tanzanian National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) during the ethical approval of the protocol NIMR/HQ/R.8a/Vol. IX/1696 on March 19th, 2014. Every care was taken to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of all respondents included in this study.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.