In Their Own Voices: Vulnerabilities & Abilities of Women, Children, & Families in Health Research

Efforts surrounding the Millennium Development and Sustainable Development Goals have brought much needed attention to lessening the burden of disease shouldered by women and children, which is most severe in low-income countries. Lasting advances in women’s and children’s health will require improvement of health systems, environment, education, improved access to effective health interventions, including better ways to deliver care in rural, low-income settings. Innovations in each of these areas will require clinical, social science and implementation research. However, many of these women and children are considered to be vulnerable to harms, coercion or exploitation, making inclusion in even potentially beneficial research ethically concerning. While significant strides have been made to develop research ethics guidance for those working with vulnerable populations, critical gaps remain in our understanding of specific vulnerabilities in context, accompanying abilities, the role of social support in mitigating vulnerability, and individuals’ own perceptions of vulnerabilities and abilities. To address these gaps and to improve support and guidance for responsible research with women, children and families, we propose an interdisciplinary collaborative study with investigators in maternal-child health, infectious disease, and social science research across three international sites in the Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programmes: Kenya, South Africa and Thailand.