Tizifa, Tinashe A.
Kabaghe, Alinune N.
McCann, Robert S.
Gowelo, Steven
Malenga, Tumaini
Nkhata, Richard M.
Chapeta, Yankho
Nkhono, William
Kadama, Asante
Takken, Willem
Phiri, Kamija S.
van Vugt, Michele
van den Berg, Henk
Manda-Taylor, Lucinda
Article History
Received: 18 September 2023
Accepted: 20 March 2024
First Online: 2 April 2024
Declarations
:
: The University of Malawi’s College of Medicine Research Ethics Committee (COMREC) gave ethical approval for interviews, and certificate numbers (P.07/18/2442) and P.05/15/1731). All participants agreed to written consent in the presence of a witness before the digitally recorded interviews. Written informed consent was obtained from all individuals participating in this study. For the qualitative component of this study, we conducted interviews in designated private rooms at the community epicentres, primary schools, and private rooms of key informants at their workplaces. In the quantitative component, interviews and household assessments were carried out at the individual household level, ensuring adequate privacy. Participants were given sufficient time to review all study-related information and ask any questions they had. Access to data was restricted to the research team only. The study findings were reported anonymously using specific codes assigned to each participant. All methods in this study were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, which outlines ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects.
: Written informed consent was obtained from the participants for the publication of their accompanying images in additional file InternalRef removed, figure InternalRef removed in this manuscript. Copies of the consent forms are kept at the authors’ institution and are available for review by the editor-in-chief.
: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.