Clinical trial NCT03425136: Systems Analysis and Improvement Approach for Prevention of MTC HIV Transmission
Official title: Scaling up the Systems Analysis and Improvement Approach for Prevention of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission in Mozambique
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: HIV
Keywords: Prevention of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission
HIV
PMTCT
Lead sponsor: University of Washington
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Ministry of Health, Mozambique
name: Health Alliance International
name: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
name: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
First posted: 2018-02-07
Enrollment: 36
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 15
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: SEQUENTIAL
Intervention model description: A three-wave stepped-wedge (phased-in) cluster randomized trial, with districts as the unit of randomization (and outcomes assessed at the clinic/individual level within each district)
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Brief summary: Optimizing the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission cascade minimizes drop offs from one step to the next to maximize the benefits of antiretroviral therapy on maternal health and pediatric survival, growth, and development. This proposal scales-up a health systems intervention (the systems analysis and improvement approach - SAIA) that packages systems engineering methods (including cascade analysis, flow mapping, and continuous quality improvement) and was previously shown to be effective in improving the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission cascade. By spreading the SAIA through routine district management structures, and studying the implementation process, this study will build evidence on how to achieve rapid, sustainable and scalable improvements in services that can dramatically improve population health in resource limited countries.

Detailed description: Despite significant increases in global health investment and the availability of low-cost, efficacious interventions designed to prevent mother to child HIV transmission (PMTCT) in low and middle income countries with high HIV burden, the translation of these scientific advances into effective delivery strategies has been slow, uneven and incomplete. As a result, pediatric HIV infection remains largely uncontrolled. The introduction of the Option B+ strategy - where HIV-infected pregnant women rapidly initiate lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART) independent of disease status - has the potential to dramatically reduce HIV transmission during pregnancy, birth and the breastfeeding period, and as a result, it has been scaled up throughout high HIV burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite these significant investments to scale-up Option B+, results have been poor, with high rates of loss to follow-up and low viral suppression, leading to continued HIV transmission to children and HIV-associated morbidity among mothers. A previous research project (the Systems Analysis and Improvement Approach - or SAIA - cluster randomized trial) demonstrated that a package of systems engineering tools including cascade analysis, process mapping, and continuous quality improvement, was effective at improving flow through the PMTCT cascade across three sub-Saharan African countries. The overall goal of this application is to develop a model to deliver the SAIA intervention (SAIA-SCALE) that is led by district maternal and child health (MCH) supervisors (rather than research nurses), to serve as a foundation for national scale-up. We propose to implement the SAIA intervention in all districts in one province in Mozambique using MCH supervisors as disseminating agents, who will implement SAIA in subordinate health facilities. Using a three-year phased-in design, 12 districts will be randomly allocated into three implementation waves, and a mixed-methods evaluation will be used to assess the impact of the intervention. Our specific aims are to: Aim 1: Develop an effective district-based dissemination and implementation strategy for the SAIA intervention (SAIA-SCALE), using the RE-AIM model to evaluate the program's Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance; and Aim 2: Using activity based micro-costing and mathematical models of HIV transmission, estimate the budget and program impact from the payer perspective to scale-up the SAIA intervention compared to the standard of care. The results of this implementation research are expected to generate knowledge of global health significance, and by providing a real-world implementation model for the SAIA intervention and programmatically relevant information, is designed to lead to rapid policy translation for future scale-up in countries with high burden of HIV and weak PMTCT delivery systems.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria • Woman/infant pair attending pMTCT and linked pediatric HIV screening and treatment services at a public sector health facility

Exclusion Criteria

• None

Primary outcomes:
measure: Maternal retention in care, evaluated using clinic registry data
timeFrame: 6-months post ART initiation
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Maternal viral load assessment, evaluated using clinic registry data
timeFrame: Within 1 month of delivery (birth)
measure: Early Infant Diagnosis for HIV, evaluated using clinic registry data
timeFrame: within 8 weeks of birth
measure: Facility Delivery, evaluated using clinic registry data
timeFrame: At birth
measure: Maternal ART Adherence, evaluated using clinic registry data
timeFrame: At 3 and 6 months post ART initiation
measure: Viral Suppression, evaluated using clinic registry data
timeFrame: Within 1 months of delivery
measure: Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission Rate, evaluated using clinic registry data
timeFrame: 6 months postpartum
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Chimoio
country: Mozambique
facility: Manica Province
state: Manica
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Washington
name: Kenneth Sherr, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Gimbel S, Voss J, Rustagi A, Mercer MA, Zierler B, Gloyd S, Coutinho Mde J, Cuembelo Mde F, Sherr K. What does high and low have to do with it? Performance classification to identify health system factors associated with effective prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV delivery in Mozambique. J Int AIDS Soc. 2014 Mar 24;17(1):18828. doi: 10.7448/IAS.17.1.18828. eCollection 2014.
citation: Gimbel S, Rustagi AS, Robinson J, Kouyate S, Coutinho J, Nduati R, Pfeiffer J, Gloyd S, Sherr K, Granato SA, Kone A, Cruz E, Manuel JL, Zucule J, Napua M, Mbatia G, Wariua G, Maina M; with input from the SAIA study team. Evaluation of a Systems Analysis and Improvement Approach to Optimize Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV Using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2016 Aug 1;72 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):S108-16. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000001055.
citation: Rustagi AS, Gimbel S, Nduati R, Cuembelo Mde F, Wasserheit JN, Farquhar C, Gloyd S, Sherr K; with input from the SAIA Study Team. Implementation and Operational Research: Impact of a Systems Engineering Intervention on PMTCT Service Delivery in Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique: A Cluster Randomized Trial. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2016 Jul 1;72(3):e68-76. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000001023.
citation: Gimbel S, Voss J, Mercer MA, Zierler B, Gloyd S, Coutinho Mde J, Floriano F, Cuembelo Mde F, Einberg J, Sherr K. The prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV cascade analysis tool: supporting health managers to improve facility-level service delivery. BMC Res Notes. 2014 Oct 21;7:743. doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-7-743.
citation: Sherr K, Gimbel S, Rustagi A, Nduati R, Cuembelo F, Farquhar C, Wasserheit J, Gloyd S; With input from the SAIA Study Team. Systems analysis and improvement to optimize pMTCT (SAIA): a cluster randomized trial. Implement Sci. 2014 May 8;9:55. doi: 10.1186/1748-5908-9-55.
citation: Sherr K, Asbjornsdottir K, Crocker J, Coutinho J, de Fatima Cuembelo M, Tavede E, Manaca N, Ronen K, Murgorgo F, Barnabas R, John-Stewart G, Holte S, Weiner BJ, Pfeiffer J, Gimbel S. Scaling-up the Systems Analysis and Improvement Approach for prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in Mozambique (SAIA-SCALE): a stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial. Implement Sci. 2019 Apr 27;14(1):41. doi: 10.1186/s13012-019-0889-z.