Clinical trial NCT02005835: Promoting Uptake and Retention of Option B+ in Malawi
Official title: Improving Uptake and Retention in PMTCT Services Through Novel Approaches in Family Supported Care and in Community Peer Outreach Support in Malawi
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: HIV
Keywords: HIV
Option B+
Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission
Lead sponsor: Lighthouse Trust
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: World Health Organization
name: AIDS Fonds
name: Mothers2Mothers
name: Kamuzu University of Health Sciences
name: Management Sciences for Health
name: Dignitas International
name: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
name: University of Malawi
name: Ministry of Health and Population, Malawi
First posted: 2013-12-09
Enrollment: 1050
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 16
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Brief summary: The purpose of this study is to determine if enhanced support for women and their families within facilities and/or through community outreach will result in improved retention in the continuum of PMTCT care.

Detailed description: The Malawi Ministry of Health (MoH) has embarked on a novel and ambitious programme to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) known as "Option B Plus". This programme takes a public health approach to promote maternal health and eliminate paediatric HIV infections through a "test and treat" model, offering all HIV-infected pregnant and breastfeeding women lifelong ART regardless of CD4 count or clinical stage. The overall goal is to improve ART uptake and retention, and thus outcomes, of HIV-infected pregnant women and their infants in the continuum of ART services.

Although the Option B Plus strategy offers an attractive rapid ART scale-up alternative to the WHO PMTCT recommendations and has the potential to profoundly impact maternal and infant outcomes, it has not been implemented in any programme setting. Operational challenges throughout the cascade of PMTCT services may affect the uptake and adherence to highly active ART treatment (HAART) by pregnant women, the follow-up of HIV-exposed infants and the long-term retention of this patient population. Several issues identified at the national level are potential threats to the successful implementation and scale up of Option B plus: a) potential suboptimal uptake of HAART by asymptomatic pregnant women due to low treatment literacy and stigma; b) low adherence to HAART and poor follow-up of HIV exposed infants; and c) lack of psycho-social support for long term retention in this relatively asymptomatic patient population (Schouten et al. 2011).

The aim of the overall project (4 years) is to evaluate facility-based and community-based support models to strengthen uptake and retention of mothers and families in PMTCT care in Malawi. Our hypothesis is that enhanced support for women and their families within facilities and/or through community outreach will result in improved retention in the continuum of PMTCT care.

We will conduct a cluster randomized clinical trial evaluating three support models for the implementation of the Option B+ program. Each of the 21 clinics will be randomized to one of the three adherence and support strategies. Arm 1 is the standard of care arm as outlined by the Ministry of Health, Arm 2 is facility level support by a peer educator and Arm 3 is community level support by a peer educator.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* HIV infected women Presenting for Antenatal Care, Labor\&Delivery, or post-partum Infants of Enrolled mothers Husbands/Spouses of Enrolled mothers

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Primary outcomes:
measure: Retention in Care
timeFrame: 12 months post ART initiation
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Retention at 24 months
timeFrame: 24 months post ART initiation
measure: Child HIV status
timeFrame: 6 weeks, 12 months, 24 months
measure: HIV free survival
timeFrame: 6 weeks, 12 months, 24 months
measure: Family retention
timeFrame: 12 months
measure: Maternal Viral Load
timeFrame: 6 months and 2 years post ART initiation
measure: Maternal resistance
timeFrame: 6 months, 2 years
measure: Infant HIV resistance
timeFrame: 6 weeks, 12 months, 24 months
measure: Social outcomes
timeFrame: 12, 24 months
Other outcomes:
measure: Economics
timeFrame: baseline, 12, 24 months
Locations:
city: Lilongwe
country: Malawi
facility: Ministry of Health Facilities
Study officials:
affiliation: Lighthouse Trust
name: Sam Phiri, PhD, MSc.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: van Lettow M, Tweya H, Rosenberg NE, Trapence C, Kayoyo V, Kasende F, Kaunda B, Hosseinipour MC, Eliya M, Cataldo F, Gugsa S, Phiri S; PURE Malawi consortium. Baseline characteristics of study sites and women enrolled in a three-arm cluster randomized controlled trial: PMTCT uptake and retention (pure) Malawi. Reprod Health. 2017 Jul 11;14(1):82. doi: 10.1186/s12978-017-0343-0.
citation: Cataldo F, Sam-Agudu NA, Phiri S, Shumba B, Cornelius LJ, Foster G. The Roles of Expert Mothers Engaged in Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) Programs: A Commentary on the INSPIRE Studies in Malawi, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2017 Jun 1;75 Suppl 2:S224-S232. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000001375.
citation: Hosseinipour M, Nelson JAE, Trapence C, Rutstein SE, Kasende F, Kayoyo V, Kaunda-Khangamwa B, Compliment K, Stanley C, Cataldo F, van Lettow M, Rosenberg NE, Tweya H, Gugsa S, Sampathkumar V, Schouten E, Eliya M, Chimbwandira F, Chiwaula L, Kapito-Tembo A, Phiri S; PURE Malawi Consortium. Viral Suppression and HIV Drug Resistance at 6 Months Among Women in Malawi's Option B+ Program: Results From the PURE Malawi Study. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2017 Jun 1;75 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):S149-S155. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000001368.
citation: Phiri S, Tweya H, van Lettow M, Rosenberg NE, Trapence C, Kapito-Tembo A, Kaunda-Khangamwa B, Kasende F, Kayoyo V, Cataldo F, Stanley C, Gugsa S, Sampathkumar V, Schouten E, Chiwaula L, Eliya M, Chimbwandira F, Hosseinipour MC; PURE Malawi Consortium. Impact of Facility- and Community-Based Peer Support Models on Maternal Uptake and Retention in Malawi's Option B+ HIV Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission Program: A 3-Arm Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (PURE Malawi). J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2017 Jun 1;75 Suppl 2:S140-S148. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000001357.
citation: Cataldo F, Chiwaula L, Nkhata M, van Lettow M, Kasende F, Rosenberg NE, Tweya H, Sampathkumar V, Hosseinipour M, Schouten E, Kapito-Tembo A, Eliya M, Chimbwandira F, Phiri S; PURE Malawi Consortium. Exploring the Experiences of Women and Health Care Workers in the Context of PMTCT Option B Plus in Malawi. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2017 Apr 15;74(5):517-522. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000001273.
citation: Chiwaula LS, Chirwa GC, Cataldo F, Kapito-Tembo A, Hosseinipour MC, van Lettow M, Tweya H, Kayoyo V, Khangamwa-Kaunda B, Kasende F, Trapence C, Gugsa S, Rosenberg NE, Eliya M, Phiri S; PURE Malawi Consortium. The value of informal care in the context of option B+ in Malawi: a contingent valuation approach. BMC Health Serv Res. 2016 Apr 19;16:136. doi: 10.1186/s12913-016-1381-y.