Feasibility and Acceptability of a Substance Use Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth Living With HIV in Kenya

Moi University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Substance Use; Substance Use Disorders

Treatments: Behavioral: Screening and brief intervention for substance use

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT04998045

D43TW009345 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

MoiU5

Details and patient eligibility

About

Youth living with HIV in Kenya frequently use substances and this negatively affects their mental health as well as viral suppression.

The goal of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a peer-delivered substance use screening and brief intervention for these youth.

Full description

Globally, youth are disproportionately affected by substance use. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), an estimated 41% of youth have used at least one substance in their lifetime. Youth Living with HIV (YLH) have not been spared. In a study conducted in Kenya, 33% and 46% of youth attending a HIV clinic reported harmful patterns of alcohol and illicit substance use respectively. Substance use among YLH has been associated with negative outcomes including antiretroviral therapy (ART) non-adherence, neurocognitive deficits, poor virologic control and depression. Unfortunately, YLH in SSA lack access to substance use interventions. A study conducted by Parcesepe et al reported that only 37% of HIV adolescent sites in select LMICs offered any substance use screening and interventions.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends screening and brief intervention (SBI) in primary healthcare for identification and early intervention for substance use. Primary healthcare workers in LMICs are however often unable to implement SBI due to heavy workload. Peers represent a potential means through which SBI may be delivered in adolescent HIV settings and presents a number of advantages. First, peer support systems are well established in many adolescent HIV clinics in sub-Saharan Africa. Secondly, by drawing upon their shared experiences as youth living with HIV, the peers can provide empathic support to the adolescents.

Few studies have evaluated implementation of peer-delivered SBI for adolescents. Available studies have been conducted in high-income countries. To our knowledge, no study has evaluated implementation of peer-delivered SBI among YLH. Our project seeks to fill this gap by evaluating the feasibility and acceptability of a peer-delivered SBI for YLH in Kenya. This project is in line with: (i) Kenyan Ministry of Health guidelines for delivery of adolescent and youth friendly services which lists substance use counseling as an essential service, and (ii) United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Fast-track target 95-95-95, which requires that by 2030, 95% of people on ART be virally suppressed (12) as well as target 3.5 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which requires that governments strengthen the treatment and prevention of substance abuse. Data from this study will set the stage for full-efficacy trials and ultimately to scale-up efforts to other LMICs.

Enrollment: 106 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 15 to 24 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria:

• Youth aged 15-24 years

Exclusion criteria

• those ill during the appointment
• those who decline to assent/consent
• youth unable to speak fluently in English.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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106 participants in 1 patient group

Intervention arm

Experimental group

Description:

Youth aged 15-24 years Intervention: screening and brief intervention for substance use

Treatment:

Behavioral: Screening and brief intervention for substance use