Nok Chhun

Background: Integrating pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) into facility-based medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and community-based needle and syringe exchange (NSP) programs may optimize service provision and reduce HIV acquisition among people who use drugs (PWUD). Healthcare workers (HCWs) providing PrEP or substance use services to PWUD offer important insight into potential challenges and strategies for effective integration. Methods: Between March 2021—September 2022 HCWs experienced in PrEP or substance use service provision for PWUD were purposively sampled from five program sites in Kampala, Uganda that offered MOUD, NSP or in-patient and outpatient rehabilitation services. Interviews were guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research and conducted with a range of HCW cadres, including nurses and social workers. Sample size was determined based on information power. Interviews were conducted by Ugandan social scientists, audio recorded, translated, and transcribed verbatim. Directed content analysis was used to identify HCW perspectives on determinants affecting implementation of and priority strategies for integrating PrEP with MOUD and NSP services. Results: Thirty HCW interviews were conducted; the median age of participants was 32 years (IQR: 28–36), and 54% identified as male. HCW knowledge about PrEP varied across program sites, but all recognized the importance of HIV prevention among PWUD and advocated for training to ensure successful integration of PrEP with MOUD and NSP service programs. By offering the “whole package” of services in one setting, HCWs felt that PrEP service integration prioritized client needs and provided a relative advantage when compared to existing facility-based delivery. HCWs were most enthusiastic about community-based PrEP integration strategies that would take “services to clients where they are,” address client concerns about stigma experienced in facilities, and remove prohibitive transportation costs. HCWs recommended community-based refill models and longer-acting PrEP products to address transportation barriers, engaging peers in delivery approaches to reduce stigma and create “friendly” environments that improve service utilization and having a dedicated PrEP implementation “champion” to optimize integration. Conclusions: HCWs viewed PrEP integration with MOUD and NSP services as acceptable, appropriate, and feasible and recommended peer delivery as a best approach, especially in community settings, such as at drop-in centers focusing on service provision for PWUD.

Background: Recently expanded WHO guidelines on differentiated service delivery (DSD) include expanded eligibility for adolescents and youth living with HIV (AYLHIV). We evaluated implementation of a stepped care program that included DSD for stable AYLHIV and intensified services, including mental health counseling, for AYLHIV with greater needs. Methods: We used the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework to guide evaluation of the Data-informed Stepped Care (DiSC) study, a cluster randomized controlled trial implemented from April 2022 to August 2023 in 24 HIV care facilities in Kenya. We used a mixed methods convergent parallel design to evaluate performance indicators across RE-AIM dimensions. Surveys were analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative data using directed content analysis. Results: Of 3,945 AYLHIV ages 10–24 years old attending care at intervention facilities, 933 AYLHIV were screened and 895 were enrolled, representing an enrollment rate of 96% and 23% reach of the intervention. Distribution by age groups were 10–14 years: 29%; 15–19 years: 48%; 20–24 years: 24%. Perceived effectiveness , including improved retention and viral suppression among AYLHIV, motivated continued implementation throughout the study duration. Providers also identified opportunities to improve AYLHIV outcomes by highlighting the importance of integrating mental health into HIV care programs. Prior to implementation, 49 health providers were trained to deliver the DiSC intervention, representing adoption by 25% of the total facility workforce, including 95% of clinical officers and 56% of nurses. Implementation was facilitated by provider-identified, fidelity-consistent adaptations to optimize contextual fit of the intervention. Key determinants influencing implementation were provider collective efficacy, compatibility with clinic workflows, leadership engagement, and alignment with changing national guidelines. Post-trial, providers supported continued use of the DiSC intervention ( maintenance), citing leadership support, training, and material and human resources as key influencers on future sustainment. Conclusions: Applying RE-AIM to evaluate performance indicators of a stepped care program for AYLHIV identified high adoption and perceived effectiveness, and key influences on implementation and maintenance. Providers were motivated to adopt and sustain use of the DiSC intervention because of perceived positive impact on health system efficiencies and AYLHIV outcomes. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05007717 . Registered 13 July 2021.

Background: Differentiation of HIV services, a client-centered strategy, may improve care outcomes among adolescents and youth living with HIV (AYLHIV). Understanding health provider perceptions of barriers and facilitators that influence implementation can optimize adoption and sustainment of health systems interventions. Methods: The Data-informed Stepped Care (DiSC) study was a cluster randomized controlled trial of a stepped care intervention in 24 HIV care facilities in Kenya. At each visit, providers used an assessment tool to allocate AYLHIV to services according to level of need. Stable clients were allocated to differentiated service delivery (DSD) with less frequent visits. Intensified services, including behavioral counseling, were provided for those with greater likelihood of loss to follow-up, mental health issues, or viral non-suppression. We conducted focus group discussions (FGDs) with providers across 12 intervention sites between January-February 2023. FGDs used a semi-structured interview guide, grounded in the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, which were audio-recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were analyzed using a team-based rapid turnaround approach to characterize key determinants influencing adoption, reach, and fidelity. Results: Providers were enthusiastic about, and quick to adopt, the DiSC intervention. They found the DiSC tool easy to use and felt it provided a relative advantage by improving service delivery efficiency and prioritizing time with higher need AYLHIV. Providers noted the importance of tool flexibility to align with changing national guidelines. They expressed concerns about compatibility with existing workflows at facilities exclusively using electronic medical record (EMR) systems, suggesting EMR integration will be needed for intervention sustainment. AYLHIV eligible for DSD benefited from clinic visit intervals that aligned with the school calendar, which posed a challenge for reaching AYLHIV in more intensive steps. Provider collective efficacy was important in consistent implementation of DiSC and was facilitated by continuous quality improvement meetings, access to knowledge and information, and perceived intervention effectiveness. Supportive leadership was an important driver of implementation success, through availing space for mental health counseling sessions and time for client-provider interactions outside standard operating hours. Conclusions: Consideration of alignment with national policy, integration into clinic workflows, school schedules, and leadership engagement, will be important for sustained use of differentiated care interventions. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05007717. Registration date: July 13, 2021.

Adolescents and young people in sub-Saharan Africa account for about a third of persons newly diagnosed with HIV. Health communication, through mobile health (mHealth) can improve access to sexual and reproductive health information, health services and reduce risky sexual behaviours among adolescents and young people. We assessed the impact of a health promotion messaging intervention on the reduction of risky sexual behaviours among HIV-negative high risk adolescent girls and young women (AGYW). Newly diagnosed and sexually active AGYW of 15-24 years old were enrolled between May 2017 and April 2018 in the HIV positive and negative cohorts of the study. We utilised SMS (short message service) and unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) technology to deliver health promotion messages quarterly to the HIV-positive cohort and six-monthly to the HIV-negative cohort over 12 months. Both cohorts completed a SMS survey at the end of their scheduled study follow-up period. We enrolled 184 AGYW in the HIV-negative cohort with a mean age of 20.8 years, 28.6% began sexual activity before 15 years old, and 8.5% tested HIV-positive. Over 12 months, reported multiple sexual partnership reduced from 33% to 12% (p < 0.001) among AGYW who had multiple partners. HIV re-testing increased from 74.2% to 81.6% (p = 0.099). Those who knew their partner's HIV status increased from 70.9% to 85.7% (p <0.001). Our findings demonstrate that mobile phone text messaging is an effective and feasible method for sexual health promotion among young people. Specifically, SMS, which is simple, cost-effective and widely accepted, could be adopted by health intervention programmes as a strategy to effectively promote safer sex behaviours and retesting among high-risk HIV-negative AGYW.

Background: Clinical risk score tools require validation in diverse settings and populations before they are widely implemented. We aimed to externally validate an HIV risk assessment tool for predicting HIV acquisition among pregnant and postpartum women. In the context of prevention of mother-to-child transmission programs, risk score tools could be used to prioritize retesting efforts and delivery of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to pregnant and postpartum women most at risk for HIV acquisition while minimizing unnecessary perinatal exposure.Methods: Data from women enrolled in a cross-sectional study of programmatic HIV retesting and/or receiving maternal and child health care services at five facilities in Western Kenya were used to validate the predictive ability of a simplified risk score previously developed for pregnant/postpartum women. Incident HIV infections were defined as new HIV diagnoses following confirmed negative or unknown status during pregnancy. Predictive performance was assessed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and Brier score.Results: Among 1266 women with 35 incident HIV infections, we found an AUC for predicting HIV acquisition of 0.60 (95% CI, 0.51, 0.69), with a Brier score of 0.27. A risk score >6 was associated with a 2.9-fold increase in the odds of HIV acquisition (95% CI, 1.48, 5.70; p = 0.002) vs scores ≤6. Women with risk scores >6 were 27% (346/1266) of the population but accounted for 52% of HIV acquisitions. Syphilis, age at sexual debut, and unknown partner HIV status were significantly associated with increased risk of HIV in this cohort.Conclusion: The simplified risk score performed moderately at predicting risk of HIV acquisition in this population of pregnant and postpartum women and may be useful to guide PrEP use or counseling.

Introduction: The Data‐informed Stepped Care (DiSC) study is a cluster‐randomized trial implemented in 24 HIV care clinics in Kenya, aimed at improving retention in care for adolescents and youth living with HIV (AYLHIV). DiSC is a multi‐component intervention that assigns AYLHIV to different intensity (steps) of services according to risk. We used the Framework for Reporting Adaptations and Modifications‐Expanded (FRAME) to characterize provider‐identified adaptations to the implementation of DiSC to optimize uptake and delivery, and determine the influence on implementation outcomes.Methods: Between May and December 2022, we conducted continuous quality improvement (CQI) meetings with providers to optimize DiSC implementation at 12 intervention sites. The meetings were guided by plan‐do‐study‐act processes to identify challenges during early phase implementation and propose targeted adaptations. Meetings were audio‐recorded and analysed using FRAME to categorize the level, context and content of planned adaptations and determine if adaptations were fidelity consistent. Providers completed surveys to quantify perceptions of DiSC acceptability, appropriateness and feasibility. Mixed effects linear regression models were used to evaluate these implementation outcomes over time.Results: Providers participated in eight CQI meetings per facility over a 6‐month period. A total of 65 adaptations were included in the analysis. The majority focused on optimizing the integration of DiSC within the clinic (83%, n = 54), and consisted of improving documentation, addressing scheduling challenges and improving clinic workflow. Primary reasons for adaptation were to align delivery with AYLHIV needs and preferences and to increase reach among AYLHIV: with reminder calls to AYLHIV, collaborating with schools to ensure AYLHIV attended clinic appointments and addressing transportation challenges. All adaptations to optimize DiSC implementation were fidelity‐consistent. Provider perceptions of implementation were consistently high throughout the process, and on average, slightly improved each month for intervention acceptability (β = 0.011, 95% CI: 0.002, 0.020, p = 0.016), appropriateness (β = 0.012, 95% CI: 0.007, 0.027, pp = 0.005).Conclusions: Provider‐identified adaptations targeted improved integration into routine clinic practices and aimed to reduce barriers to service access unique to AYLHIV. Characterizing types of adaptations and adaptation rationale may enrich our understanding of the implementation context and improve abilities to tailor implementation strategies when scaling to new settings.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest HIV burden. Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in the age range of 15 to 24 years are twice as likely as their male peers to be infected, making females in sub-Saharan Africa the most at-risk group for HIV infection. It is therefore critical to prioritize access to HIV testing, prevention, and treatment for this vulnerable population. Using an implementation science framework, the purpose of this research protocol was to describe the approaches we propose to optimize engagement of AGYW in both the HIV prevention and care continuum and to determine the recruitment and testing strategies that identify the highest proportion of previously undiagnosed HIV infections. We will compare two seek recruitment strategies, three test strategies, and pilot adaptive linkage to care interventions (sequential multiple assignment randomized trial [SMART] design) among AGYW in the age range of 15 to 24 years in Homa Bay County, western Kenya. AGYW will be recruited in the home or community-based setting and offered three testing options: oral fluid HIV self-testing, staff-aided rapid HIV testing, or referral to a health care facility for standard HIV testing services. Newly diagnosed AGYW with HIV will be enrolled in the SMART trial pilot to determine the most effective way to support initial linkage to care after a positive diagnosis. They will be randomized to standard referral (counseling and a referral note) or standard referral plus SMS text message (short message service, SMS); those not linked to care within 2 weeks will be rerandomized to receive an additional SMS text message or a one-time financial incentive (approximately US $4). We will also evaluate a primary prevention messaging intervention to support identified high-risk HIV-negative AGYW to reduce their HIV risk and adhere to HIV retesting recommendations. We will also conduct analyses to determine the incremental cost-effectiveness of the seek, testing and linkage interventions. We expect to enroll 1200 participants overall, with a random selection of 100 high-risk HIV-negative AGYW for the SMS prevention intervention (HIV-negative cohort) and approximately 108 AGYW who are living with HIV for the SMART design pilot of adaptive linkage to care interventions (HIV-positive cohort). We anticipate that the linkage to care interventions will be feasible and acceptable to implement. Lastly, the use of SMS text messages to engage participants will provide pilot data to the Kenyan government currently exploring a national platform to track and support linkage, adherence to treatment, retention, and prevention interventions for improved outcomes. Lessons learned will inform best approaches to identify new HIV diagnoses to increase AGYW's uptake of HIV prevention, testing, and linkage to care services in a high HIV-burden African setting. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02735642; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02735642 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6vgLLHLC9).

BACKGROUND Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest HIV burden. Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in the age range of 15 to 24 years are twice as likely as their male peers to be infected, making females in sub-Saharan Africa the most at-risk group for HIV infection. It is therefore critical to prioritize access to HIV testing, prevention, and treatment for this vulnerable population. OBJECTIVE Using an implementation science framework, the purpose of this research protocol was to describe the approaches we propose to optimize engagement of AGYW in both the HIV prevention and care continuum and to determine the recruitment and testing strategies that identify the highest proportion of previously undiagnosed HIV infections. METHODS We will compare two seek recruitment strategies, three test strategies, and pilot adaptive linkage to care interventions (sequential multiple assignment randomized trial [SMART] design) among AGYW in the age range of 15 to 24 years in Homa Bay County, western Kenya. AGYW will be recruited in the home or community-based setting and offered three testing options: oral fluid HIV self-testing, staff-aided rapid HIV testing, or referral to a health care facility for standard HIV testing services. Newly diagnosed AGYW with HIV will be enrolled in the SMART trial pilot to determine the most effective way to support initial linkage to care after a positive diagnosis. They will be randomized to standard referral (counseling and a referral note) or standard referral plus SMS text message (short message service, SMS); those not linked to care within 2 weeks will be rerandomized to receive an additional SMS text message or a one-time financial incentive (approximately US $4). We will also evaluate a primary prevention messaging intervention to support identified high-risk HIV-negative AGYW to reduce their HIV risk and adhere to HIV retesting recommendations. We will also conduct analyses to determine the incremental cost-effectiveness of the seek, testing and linkage interventions. RESULTS We expect to enroll 1200 participants overall, with a random selection of 100 high-risk HIV-negative AGYW for the SMS prevention intervention (HIV-negative cohort) and approximately 108 AGYW who are living with HIV for the SMART design pilot of adaptive linkage to care interventions (HIV-positive cohort). We anticipate that the linkage to care interventions will be feasible and acceptable to implement. Lastly, the use of SMS text messages to engage participants will provide pilot data to the Kenyan government currently exploring a national platform to track and support linkage, adherence to treatment, retention, and prevention interventions for improved outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Lessons learned will inform best approaches to identify new HIV diagnoses to increase AGYW’s uptake of HIV prevention, testing, and linkage to care services in a high HIV-burden African setting. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02735642; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02735642 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6vgLLHLC9)

Journal of Medical Internet Research - International Scientific Journal for Medical Research, Information and Communication on the Internet