Willingness to participate among high risk subgroups in HIV vaccine trials

Abstract

Current preventive measures against Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection have to deal with obstacles, such as feasibility and logistics. Therefore a lot of effort is put into the development and clinical testing of possible new HIV vaccines. The development of an potential vaccines is strongly influenced by the effectiveness of the vaccine and the willingness to participate (WTP) of volunteers in clinical studies were the potential vaccine could be tested. The overall WTP in current literature is around 65%. However, there are differences between high risk subgroups: Men who have sex with men (MSM); injecting drug users (IDU); and women at high risk. The reasons underlying and the correlated factors of WTP differ widely between these subgroups. For future HIV vaccine trials it will be essential to take into consideration these differences between subgroups and use the knowledge gained from previous trials for more successful recruitment of participant. Contrariwise, critical appraisal of new trials and vaccines is needed to retain the balance between the need to test new vaccines in a trial and the amount of potential new trial participants.