Plain language summary What factors influence a person’s willingness to take part in a vaccine trial during an epidemic or pandemic? What is the aim of this review? Vaccines are important for reducing the spread of infectious diseases during a pandemic such as COVID‐19. Clinical trials test these vaccines to make sure that they are safe and effective. But it can be challenging to find enough people who are willing to take part in a vaccine trial for a pandemic or epidemic disease. The aim of this Cochrane Review of qualitative research (or ‘qualitative evidence synthesis’) was to find out what influences a person’s decision to take part in a vaccine trial in the context of a pandemic or epidemic. Understanding the factors that influence a person’s decision to participate in a vaccine trial can inform trial design and development of recruitment strategies that optimise communication, informed consent, and participant inclusion and diversity in vaccine clinical trials. To answer the review question, we analysed 34 studies of people’s views and experiences of taking part in a vaccine trial. Key messages Many factors influence a person’s decision to take part in a vaccine trial during a pandemic or epidemic. People are influenced by the way in which the trial is set up and how information about the trial is communicated. People are also influenced by what they think the possible risks and side effects are. Friends and family may also have influenced their decision. A fear of stigma and distrust in governments may prevent people from taking part in a vaccine trial. People may often see the chance to help others and prevent the spread of disease as a reason to take part in a vaccine trial. What did we find? We included 34 studies that looked at people’s views and experiences of being invited to take part in a vaccine trial in the context of a pandemic or epidemic. Most of the studies related to HIV vaccine trials. The other studies related to Ebola virus, tuberculosis, Zika virus and COVID‐19. Studies were set in many countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. The studies looked at the views and experiences of adults aged 18 years and over who had been invited to take part in vaccine clinical trials. Some of them had accepted and some had decided not to take part. Main results We identified several factors that people consider when deciding whether to take part in a vaccine trial during a pandemic or epidemic. We judged our confidence in these findings to be low, moderate or high depending on how well supported that finding was from the included studies. We had moderate to high confidence in most of the findings. Some of the factors that influenced people’s decisions were under the control of the team setting up the trial. For instance, people were influenced by how trial information was communicated, and whether community members were involved in information delivery. They were also influenced by how easy or convenient it was to take part in the trial, whether they would be paid to take part and whether they would get access to additional support or health services. Other factors included personal concerns, and the influence of family and friends and wider society. From a personal point of view, people had concerns about vaccine side effects, how well the vaccine works, and how taking part in the trial might impact on their daily lives and responsibilities. People were also influenced by their families and whether taking part might affect their relationships with others. Some people feared stigma from their communities if they took part. People’s level of trust in the government’s involvement in research and trials could also influence their decisions. People also considered the possible rewards of taking part in a trial and whether these outweighed the risks. Some of these rewards were personal. People wanted to get faster access to a vaccine, improve their health, improve their understanding of the disease and return to normal life during a pandemic or epidemic. But people were also motivated by wanting to help society and contribute to science. This was often tied to memories of family and friends who had died from the disease. What are the limitations of the evidence? We identified 34 studies for this review, but 26 were related to HIV. This raised concerns about the relevance of the data to other diseases. In addition, we had concerns about the quality of the data for some findings. Because of the diversity of the participants in individual studies, we cannot make any inferences by participant types (for example, participants’ backgrounds, gender, or social standing or class). How up‐to‐date is this evidence? This review includes studies published before the end of June 2021.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Adult, humans, Pandemics, fear, drug-related side effects and adverse reactions, friends, Zika virus infection, Zika virus,