Community based trials and informed consent in rural north India

• Published in: Journal of medical ethics Vol. 30; no. 3; pp. 318 - 323
• Main Authors: DeCosta, A, D’Souza, N, Krishnan, S, Chhabra, M S, Shihaam, I, Goswami, K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics 01.06.2004; BMJ Publishing Group; BMJ Publishing Group Ltd; BMJ Publishing Group LTD; BMJ Group
• Subjects: Blood; Children; Clinical research; Clinical Trials as Topic; Communities; Community; Community based instruction; Control; Decision making; Developing countries; Diseases; Ethics; Ethics, Clinical; Experimentation; Females; Global Medical Ethics; Health care; Human subjects; Humans; India; Informed consent; Informed Consent - ethics; Interviews; LDCs; Medical care; Medical care (Private); Men; Mens health; Participation; Paternalism; Public health; Public Health Practice - ethics; Public participation; Research studies; Rural Population; Towns; Vaccination; Vaccines; Womens health; India; Empirical Approach; Biomedical and Behavioral Research
• ISSN: 0306-6800; 1473-4257; 1473-4257
• DOI: 10.1136/jme.2002.001065

Disease control has increasingly shifted towards large scale, disease specific, public health interventions. The emerging problems of HIV, hepatitis, malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis, childhood pneumonia, and meningitis have made community based trials of interventions a cost effective long term investment for the health of a population. The authors conducted this study to explore the complexities involved in obtaining informed consent to participation in rural north India, and how people there make decisions related to participation in clinical research.