'Speaking the Dialect:' Understanding Public Discourse in the Aftermath of an HIV Vaccine Trial Shutdown

The study’s goal was to investigate “how persons from key populations at higher risk of HIV exposure interpreted the process and outcomes of the Step Study HIV-1 vaccine trial, which was terminated early, and implications for willingness to participate in and community support for HIV vaccine research.”

In Ontario from 2007 to 2008, qualitative methods and a community-based approach were employed in nine focus groups (n=72) among ethnically and sexually diverse populations, and in six semistructured key informant interviews.

“Participants construed social meaning from complex clinical and biomedical phenomena. Social representations and mental models emerged in fears of vaccine-induced infection, conceptualizations of unfair recruitment practices and increased risk behaviors among trial participants, and questioning of informed consent,” according to the results. Support for future trials was seen in narratives of altruism and the common good.

“Public discourse on HIV vaccine trials is a productive means of interpreting complex clinical trial processes and outcomes in the context of existing beliefs and experiences regarding HIV vaccines, medical research, and historical disenfranchisement,” the study authors concluded. “Strategic engagement with social representations and mental models may promote meaningful community involvement in biomedical HIV prevention research.”

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