NCT03199027

Timing of Referral to Adherence Clubs for Antiretroviral Therapy

Timing of Referral to Adherence Clubs for Antiretroviral Therapy - a Randomised Controlled Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 220 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Cape Town · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Following the announcement of the global "90-90-90" strategy, there is a huge need in South Africa for effective well-developed scaled-up models of ART (anti-retroviral therapy) delivery that aim to improve patient adherence and viral suppression. The ART adherence club is one such model of service delivery. The investigators are conducting a pragmatic randomised control trial to compare virological outcomes 12 months post-ART initiation between arms: individuals referred to the Adherence club at 4 months post-ART initiation (early referral) and individuals referred to the Adherence club at 12 months post-ART initiation (delayed referral). Individuals with delayed Adherence club referral will continue to attend the ART clinic as per the Standard-of-Care.

Detailed description

Following on from the huge need for scaled-up models of ART (anti-retroviral therapy) delivery to improve patient adherence and viral suppression, the ART adherence club model was piloted from 2007 with the aim of assessing whether this group-based, lay-counsellor led service, with an emphasis on social support and adherence, could help address retention in care and viral suppression. Since the initial pilots, the club model has been scaled up rapidly with more than 400 clubs meeting in the Cape Town metro. As this model is being scaled-up and implemented rapidly, there is an urgent necessity to further assess its effectiveness. Whilst adherence clubs have been shown to be locally implementable, popular (with buy-in by clinic staff and patients) and cost-effective, and whilst community-based interventions have been shown to improve retention, evidence of local adherence club effectiveness in improving viral suppression and retention has only been observationally obtained. This observational evidence is highly subject to selection bias. This trial aims to address this by using a randomised controlled trial design with two arms - ART patients receiving care in clinic as per the Standard-of-Care (this arm will have delayed referral to Adherence clubs at 12 months post-initiation) and ART patients receiving care in Adherence clubs (this arm will have early referral to Adherence clubs at 4 months post-initiation). By doing this the investigators hope to generate robust evidence regarding both the effectiveness of clubs and the optimal timing of club referral.

Conditions

• Hiv

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Adherence Club	Participants will be referred to an Adherence Club at 4 months post-ART initiation. Adherence club visits occur 2-4 monthly at a community hall near the Community Health Centre (CHC). At routine visits, which last 1-2 hours, community health workers provide health education, weigh patients, ask about symptoms and dispense pre-packed ART. Symptomatic patients are sent back to the ART clinic for clinician assessment. An assigned nurse takes blood tests annually at each club, and then returns on the subsequent visit to perform a clinical assessment and check the results. Patients requiring more follow-up or with high viral loads are referred back to the ART clinic at the CHC by the nurse.

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-01-18
• Primary completion: 2018-10-06
• Completion: 2019-01-31
• First posted: 2017-06-26
• Last updated: 2019-09-04

Locations

1 site across 1 country: South Africa