Implementing youth advisory boards with sexual minority adolescents and young men: sharing experiences, challenges and opportunities from East, South, and West Africa

Clinical trials involving sexual minority adolescents and young men in low- and middle-income countries have historically been limited due to a combination of structural, social, and scientific barriers that often hinder their participation. In addition, researchers lack the cultural competence or knowledge of inclusive recruitment strategies to effectively engage these populations. In this commentary, we describe the experiences, challenges, and opportunities in establishing youth advisory boards as a pathway to entry into the community, overcoming exclusion, building trust, and incorporating the voices of under-served sexual minority adolescents and young men in clinical trials and the development of community-informed interventions.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06350682. Registered on February 10, 2026.

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Publication Details

Journal
Trials
Published
2026-03-11
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-026-09596-5
Primary Topic
HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Implementing youth advisory boards with sexual minority adolescents and young men: sharing experiences, challenges and opportunities from East, South, and West Africa

Richard Gichuki, Elizabeth Shoyemi, Cassidy W. Claassen, Taylor Lascko et al.
Trials
HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions
article

Implementing youth advisory boards with sexual minority adolescents and young men: sharing experiences, challenges and opportunities from East, South, and West Africa

Richard Gichuki, Elizabeth Shoyemi, Cassidy W. Claassen, Taylor Lascko, John Chama, Man Charurat, Kennedy Sambambi, Ojore Godday Aghedo, Gift Trapence, Nadia A Sam-Agudu, S. B. Adebajo, Marie-Claude C. Lavoie, Benson Njoroge, Lisa Hightow-Weidman, Maria Chinoko Ngulube, Gift Ndalumbira, Joshua Kimani, Akipu Ehoche, Nicholas Shima Aernan, Olawole Ayorinde, Chester Mutumba, RISE Study, Nathan Nganga, Philip Daniel Chinseu
article en

Abstract

Clinical trials involving sexual minority adolescents and young men in low- and middle-income countries have historically been limited due to a combination of structural, social, and scientific barriers that often hinder their participation. In addition, researchers lack the cultural competence or knowledge of inclusive recruitment strategies to effectively engage these populations. In this commentary, we describe the experiences, challenges, and opportunities in establishing youth advisory boards as a pathway to entry into the community, overcoming exclusion, building trust, and incorporating the voices of under-served sexual minority adolescents and young men in clinical trials and the development of community-informed interventions.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06350682. Registered on February 10, 2026.

Trials
Florida State University (US), University of Maryland, Baltimore (US), Family Health International 360 (US), Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (ZM), Partners for Health and Development in Africa (KE), Institute of Human Virology (NG), University of Minnesota Medical Center (US)
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 28%
HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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