Soliciting parental consent among adolescent minor mothers: A barrier in adolescent HIV research?

Soliciting parental consent among adolescent minor mothers: A barrier in adolescent HIV research?
L T Gebrekristos
South African Medical Journal, May 2021; 111(6) pp 526-527
Open Access
Excerpt
Adolescents fare worse on the HIV prevention and treatment cascade than adults. This disparity may be particularly acute for adolescent minors (i.e. <18 years of age). Current trends show that adolescents, and especially adolescent minors, are a particularly vulnerable population. The under-representation of adolescent minors (especially unemancipated induviduals) in HIV research negatively affects the development and evaluation of interventions to improve their health. Despite growing consensus regarding the value of conducting HIV research with adolescent minors, concerns about perceived barriers to enrolling them persists. Specifically, researchers and adolescnets minors in studies have voices concerns that requiring parental consent might affect adolescent minors’ autonomy and/or confidentiality…