Women's willingness to participate in microbicide trials in northern Thailand

To assess women's interests and concerns regarding participation in trials of microbicides in Chiang Rai, Thailand, we administered structured questio nnaires. Before answering the questionnaire, women attended an educational session on rnicrobicides and clinical trials. Of 370 participants, 82% corr ectly answered 8 or more of the I I overall comprehension questions, indica ting an adequate knowledge base among the women from which to answer questi ons about attitudes toward microbicide trials. The most common motivations for participating in a trial were "getting tested for HIV" and "doing somet hing good for women's health." The greatest barrier to participation was wo men's fear that if they proposed use of a microbicide, their husbands might feel protected and thereby have more sex partners. Overall, 6.2% said they would be "definitely willing to participate," and 66.8% said they wanted t o participate but wanted to think about it. Most women previously unacquain ted with the concept of microbicides or clinical trial design displayed ade quate knowledge of these subjects after the short educational session. If w omen's initial reactions are validated by actual willingness, surveys could prove valuable for selecting sites for microbicide trials, estimating enro llment rates, and tailoring trials to make them most acceptable to women.