The Effect of Informed Consent in Communicating with PLHIV in Siaya, Kenya

Purpose: The purpose was to establish the effect of informed consent in communicating with Person’s Living with HIV (PLHIV) in Siaya, Kenya. Methodology: This was both a descriptive research and inferential design. Data was collected using a field survey involving two sets of questionnaires for key informant and PLHIV interviews. Spearman’s rho correlations and simple linear regression models were used to estimate the relationship between the independent variable (informed consent) and the dependent variable (communication), and ANOVA test was done to test the hypothesis. Findings: The calculated proportionate sample size was 374. However, the respondents rose to 396 which represented 96.18% of those who agreed to be interviewed, with 17 rejections which were removed from analysis leaving a sample of 376. Normality Test was conducted to determine the study sample was drawn from normal population. Under null hypothesis, there was no difference between the sample and the population from which the sample was drawn and therefore there was significant evidence to reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis (p-value=0.000 CI=95%). Further, findings show that 82.30% enrolled onto the Text for Adherence (T4A) mobile app voluntarily and 70.71% signed the consent form and 6.07% stated that consent was implied. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The Technology Readiness (TR), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Diffusion of Innovations (DOI were used to anchor future studies. This study has concluded that it was important for individuals enrolling into mhealth communication interventions to consent and this responsibility is for system supporters in mhealth space. The findings further established that enrolment onto mhealth apps improves health status of patients suffering from chronic illnesses. This has implications for policy changes or improvements in mhealth generally in Kenya and globally. A positive intervention such as Text for Adherence (T4A) should prompt the government to scale up enrolment by supporting system supporters or taking over the enrolment entirely as a matter of public health promotion.