Using mHealth to deliver a home-based testing and counselling program to improve linkage to care and ART adherence in rural South Africa
SOURCE: Prevention Science: The Official Journal of the Society for Prevention Research
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2018
TITLE AUTHOR(S): W.S.Comulada, A.Wynn, H.Van Rooyen, R.V.Barnabas, R.Eashwari, A.Van Heerden
KEYWORDS: ANTIRETROVIRAL THERAPY (ART), HIV/AIDS, HOME CARE, HOME-BASED HIV COUNSELING AND TESTING (VCT)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 10557
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/12729
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/12729
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2018
TITLE AUTHOR(S): W.S.Comulada, A.Wynn, H.Van Rooyen, R.V.Barnabas, R.Eashwari, A.Van Heerden
KEYWORDS: ANTIRETROVIRAL THERAPY (ART), HIV/AIDS, HOME CARE, HOME-BASED HIV COUNSELING AND TESTING (VCT)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 10557
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/12729
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/12729
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
Community-based HIV testing and counseling (HTC) programs have become an important part of the healthcare system in South Africa and other low- and middle-income countries with a high HIV prevalence and strained primary healthcare system. Current HTC programs excel at identifying people living with HIV (PLH) but leave gaps in linkage to care and antiretroviral therapy (ART) as most HTC programs do not have the capacity to ensure that linkage has occurred. This article presents the protocol for an mHealth study, that is, pilot testing a mobile platform in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa, to improve linkage to care and ART adherence after home-based HTC. Testing data are shared with designated clinics. PLH are identified using fingerprint scans, mobile numbers, or South African IDs. If PLH do not present at a designated clinic after testing HIV positive, study field staff are sent SMS alerts to prompt follow-up visits. Similarly, if PLH do not refill ART prescriptions after their initial 1-month dose runs out, SMS alerts that are sent to field staff. This paper presents the mHealth study protocol and baseline sample characteristics (N = 101 PLH). Analyses will summarize rates of linkage to care and ART prescription refills. Cost effectiveness analyses will examine the costs and benefits of linkage and ART adherence using our mHealth system. Linkage to care rates will be compared between our study and a historical control, that is, provided by a prior HTC program that was conducted in KZN without our mHealth system (n = 615).-
Related Research Outputs:
- A cost-effectiveness analysis of a home-based HIV counselling and testing intervention versus the standard (facility based) HIV testing strategy in rural South Africa
- An exploratory study of the impact of primary caregiver HIV infection on caregiving and child developmental outcome in the era of Haart: piloting the methodology
- Universal HIV testing of infants at immunization clinics: an acceptable and feasible approach for early infant diagnosis in high HIV prevalence settings
- Use of traditional complementary and alternative medicine for HIV patients in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- The phenomenology of bodily care: caregivers' experiences with AIDS patients before antiretroviral therapies in Lesotho
- Traditional complementary and alternative medicine and antiretroviral treatment adherence among HIV patients in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- Rifampin pharmacokinetics in children, with and without human immunodefiency virus infection, hospitalized for the management of severe forms of tuberculosis
- Utilisation of the national antiretroviral therapy guidelines among health care professionals working in Abuja treatment centres, Nigeria
- Antiretroviral treatment adherence among HIV patients in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- Traditional complementary and alternative medicine and antiretroviral treatment adherence among HIV patients in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- Determinants of adherence to a single-dose nevirapine regimen for the Prevention of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission in Gert Sibande district in South Africa
- Safer sexual behaviours after 1 year of antiretroviral treatment in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a prospective cohort study
- The who & why of antiretroviral treatment adherence
- A decline in new HIV infections in South Africa: estimating HIV incidence from three national HIV surveys in 2002, 2005 and 2008
- Perceived stigma among patients receiving antiretroviral therapy: a prospective study in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- Equity in the use of antiretroviral treatment in the public health care system in urban South Africa
- Factors associated with short-course antiretroviral prophylaxis (dual therapy) adherence for PMTCT in Nkangala district, South Africa
- Antiretrovirals and the use of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine by HIV patients in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a longitudinal study
- Design and methods of a longitudinal study investigating the impact of antiretroviral treatment on the partnerships and sexual behaviour of HIV-infected individuals in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- The influence of antiretroviral treatment on willingness to test: a qualitative study in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa