Lejone, Thabo Ishmael
Kopo, Mathebe
Bachmann, Nadine
Brown, Jennifer Anne
Glass, Tracy Renée
Muhairwe, Josephine
Matsela, Tebatso
Scherrer, Ramona
Chere, Lebohang
Namane, Tilo
Labhardt, Niklaus Daniel
Amstutz, Alain
Article History
Received: 9 March 2020
Accepted: 16 March 2020
First Online: 30 March 2020
Ethics approval and consent to participate
: The trial protocol has been approved by the Ethical Board in Switzerland (Ethikkommission Nordwestschweiz; Req-2019-00480; June 14, 2019) and the Ministry of Health Research and Ethics Committee of Lesotho (118–2019; June 03, 2019). The trained PEs obtain the individual written informed consent from the participant before inclusion into the PEBRA study. In order to minimize selection bias, the ethics committees agreed to waive parental consent for the 15–17 years old study participants. Illiterate study participants provide a thumb-print and a literate witness (independent to the trial and chosen by the participant) co-signs the form. The informed consent is provided in the local language, Sesotho, and the participant receives a copy of the consent form. The participant has the right to withdraw consent at any time without giving reasons. In case of withdrawal, only data collected until the time of withdrawal will be used for research purposes (fully anonymized, identifier removed) and the participant will be managed according to standard of care. The results of this research project will be shared at three levels: (a) district level, during meetings headed by the district health management team, (b) national level, at the national research symposium of the Ministry of Health, and (c) international level through presentations at conferences and publication in peer-reviewed journals. The current version of the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors is followed regarding the eligibility of authorship and we do not intend to use a professional writer.
: Not applicable.
: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.