Overall aim and objectives
HIV in Kilimanjaro, TanzaniaTo
SECONDARY
We aim to investigate whether our customized digital adherence tool will improve retention in care among breastfeeding women and adherence to treatment among children and adolescents.The specific objectives for the first stage are as follows:
To identify the enablers and barriers to using DAT among children and their caregivers/parents, adolescents and breastfeeding women living with HIV in Kilimanjaro, TanzaniaTo identify the needed content of SMS schemes based on the participants’ preferencesTo identify the preferred timing and frequency for SMS, including reminder cues to take medication and to visit the clinicTo understand the need for additional information for different groups to be included in the SMS, i.e. education on sexual and reproductive health importance of breastfeeding, amongst othersTo design the blueprint for the DAT to be tested in the second phase of the projectIn the second stage of clinical trials, we will investigate the effect of our developed DAT according to the blueprint. This will be established through the following specific objectives:
Breastfeeding women: to assess the percentage retention in care at 18 months post-partumChildren: to assess the percentage of children being 95% adherent to treatment based on pharmacy refill counts and self-reported adherenceAdolescents: to assess the percentage of adolescents being 95% adherent to treatment based on pharmacy refill counts and self-reported adherenceOur secondary objectives for the second stage are as follows:
To assess the percentage of breastfeeding women, children and adolescents living with HIV reporting 95% adherence at 18, 12 and 12 months, respectivelyTo assess the percentage of breastfeeding women, children and adolescents living with HIV being virologically suppressed (<20 copies/ml) at 18, 12 and 12 months, respectivelyTo determine the trend in adherence over time based on self-report and pharmacy refill counts for breastfeeding women, children and adolescents living with HIVTo establish different cut-off points of adherence levels and their association with virological suppressionTo determine the HIV status of the infants of breastfeeding women living with HIV at 6 weeks, 9 months and 18 monthsTo investigate the feasibility and acceptability of the DATTo determine the implementation costs of the DAT