COMPLETED

Adolescents Living With HIV (ALWH): Social Networks, Adherence and Retention

Study Overview

This clinical trial focuses on testing the efficacy of different digital interventions to promote re-engagement in cancer-related long-term follow-up care for adolescent and young adult (AYA) survivors of childhood cancer.

Description

human immunodeficiency virus / acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is the second leading cause of death in Africa. Adolescents living with HIV (ALWH) are at increased risk for HIV-related morbidity and mortality due to poor retention in HIV care and suboptimal antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence. Despite having the world's largest population of Adolescents living with HIV (ALWH) (15-24 years, n=870,000), only 14% of South African ALWH are on ART, 12% are retained in HIV care 1-2 years after ART initiation, and 10% are virally suppressed. During treatment interruption, the effects of ART quickly reverse, increasing transmission risk, treatment resistance, and potentially fatal complications. Unless their treatment retention and adherence improves, ALWH will continue to transmit the virus to their sexual partners and die prematurely. While social support is often viewed as a bridge that joins ALWH to key resources within their environments, little is known about which types of social support are most impactful and from whom within their network, particularly among ALWH in endemic countries. Moreover, many South African ALWH lack social support from key social network members due to lack of HIV status disclosure, increasing their risk for poorer HIV-related outcomes when compare to their disclosed peers. Social network interventions (i.e., those that leverage the resources within one's network to improve behaviors and outcomes) that meet the needs of both ALWH who are disclosed and non-disclosed are needed, but lacking. Such inventions have the potential to facilitate appraisal support, during which ALWH receive targeted assistance with identifying appropriate and trustworthy people in their lives. More broadly, there exists a lack empirically supported interventions aimed at improving retention in HIV care and ART adherence for ALWH in low-middle income countries. This proposal follows the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), a comprehensive framework for optimizing and evaluating multicomponent behavioral interventions.

Official Title

Understanding and Developing a Network-based Social Support Intervention to Improve Retention in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Care and Antiretroviral Therapy Adherence for Adolescents Living With HIV

Quick Facts

Study Start:2024-11-18
Study Completion:2025-07-18
Study Type:Not specified
Phase:Not Applicable
Enrollment:Not specified
Status:COMPLETED

Study ID

NCT04077047

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Ages Eligible for Study:15 Years to 21 Years
Sexes Eligible for Study:ALL
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:No
Standard Ages:CHILD, ADULT
Inclusion CriteriaExclusion Criteria
  1. * reside in study area
  2. * able to provide consent or assent
  3. * agreeable to allowing the research team to have access to their clinic data to assess retention in human immunodeficiency virus- (HIV) care and antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence
  4. * each Adolescents living with HIV (ALWH) must recruit at least one social network member to participate in the intervention with them
  1. * None

Contacts and Locations

Principal Investigator

Tiarney Ritchwood, PhD
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Study Locations (Sites)

Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27101
United States

Collaborators and Investigators

Sponsor: Wake Forest University Health Sciences

  • Tiarney Ritchwood, PhD, PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR, Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Study Record Dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Registration Dates

Study Start Date2024-11-18
Study Completion Date2025-07-18

Study Record Updates

Study Start Date2024-11-18
Study Completion Date2025-07-18

Terms related to this study

Keywords Provided by Researchers

  • Adolescents

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

  • HIV/AIDS