NCT05454839

Preferences for Services in a Patient's First Six Months on Antiretroviral Therapy for HIV in South Africa

• Status: Active Not Recruiting
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 1,098 (actual)
• Sponsor: Boston University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

With the advent of universal eligibility for HIV treatment ("treat all") and same-day and community-based antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation, retention in care after a patient has started ART remains the main challenge to achieving optimal outcomes in HIV treatment programs. Consistently across both time and geography, the highest risk for loss from care is during a patient's first six months after ART initiation, with about quarter of all patients not retained by the end of month 6. One of the reasons for the high attrition from care in this early retention period is that the model of care offered to most newly-initiating and re-initiating patients has barely evolved from its original outlines. Patients in their first six months on ART are generally not eligible for lower-intensity, patient-centered "differentiated service delivery" models that make remaining in care easier for experienced patients. Instead, most early patients must still make multiple clinic visits that include clinical consultations with providers, and most can receive only 1-2 month supplies of medications at a time. This protocol is for the PREFER-South Africa study, an activity of the Retain6 project. Retain6 aims to develop new models of care for patients' first six months on ART. PREFER-South Africa will collect data on patients' characteristics, clinical and non-clinical needs, and preferences for different types of services during their first six months after initiating ART. The investigators will conduct an observational, prospective cohort survey of newly-initiated or re-initiated adult ART patients at a selected set of 18 healthcare facilities in South Africa. Results are expected to inform the design of better models of service delivery for the early treatment period.

Conditions

• HIV

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Survey	Interviewer-administered survey
OTHER	Focus group	Focus group for selected participants

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-09-08
• Primary completion: 2024-05-31
• Completion: 2026-12-01
• First posted: 2022-07-12
• Last updated: 2026-01-08

Locations

2 sites across 2 countries: South Africa, Zambia