Emotional and behavioural difficulties among children and adolescents attending "ART teen clubs" in Mzuzu City in northern Malawi: a cross-sectional study.

"Declarations Ethical approval and consent to participateThis study was approved by the Malawi National Health Sciences Research and Ethics Committee (Protocol number:17/05/1804)). This was done to fulfill the council for international organization of medical sciences (CIOMS) guidelines when carrying out research on human beings. The guidelines state that any research carried out on human beings should be approved by the ethics research committee to make sure that it meets all ethical issues to protect the population. Prior to approval, all participating sites wrote support letters accepting the study to be done in their respective sites as ethics clearance requirement. Upon approval, letters of introduction were submitted to authorities of the participating facilities. The “ART teen clubs” in-charges were then asked to provide names of the children and adolescents that had come to the clinic on that day. The names were given numbers from the first to the last. Only even number were randomly selected. The participants were then informed of the study and they were also informed that they could withdraw from participating in the study at any time without fear of any penalty. Parents and/or legal guardians signed the informed consent forms on behalf of all study participants before data collection, expressing their children willingness to participate in the study as all participants were below 18 years. Only those whose parents or legal guardian signed the consent forms were interviewed. The questionaries were put in envelopes and handed out to the respondents. Questionnaires were filled with the help of research assistants without any identifying information. All study methods were performed in accordance with Malawi National Health Sciences Research and Ethics Committee ethical guidelines. Consent for publicationThis manuscript does not contain any identifying image, therefore consent for publication was not required. Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests."

"Funding This research did not receive any funding."