HIV Care Cascade and Linkage to Antiretroviral Therapy Among Hospitalized Adults in Lusaka, Zambia (COLAH)

The University of Alabama at Birmingham

Status: Completed

Conditions: Hiv

Treatments: Other: Standard of care

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03158844

F160812007

Details and patient eligibility

About

The population of inpatients is large in Zambia; however, because of poor linkages between hospitals and community HIV care, there are few data to analyze their engagement in HIV care before and after hospitalization. The goal of the study is to learn more about Zambian adults who are HIV-infected and get hospitalized. The purpose of this study is to gather formative, preliminary data, to be used in future grant applications to improve linkage and engagement in HIV care in Zambia.

Full description

The main objective of this study is to generate preliminary data on the outcomes of Zambian HIV-infected individuals after discharge from University Teaching Hospital (UTH) Internal Medicine wards which can inform development of a linkage intervention. Our central hypothesis is that in Sub-Saharan African settings like Zambia hospitalizations among HIV-infected individuals are driven by suboptimal linkage and initiation of ART following HIV diagnosis. Specific Aims: (a) Characterize the distribution of hospitalized 300 HIV-infected adults across the HIV care continuum. (b) Identify structural, psychosocial, clinic, and medical factors that predict suboptimal linkage to care and ART initiation after 90 days of hospital discharge among HIV-infected Zambians.

Enrollment: 250 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 99 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 18 years or older
• HIV-infected as documented in the UTH file
• Admitted to Internal Medicine Ward at UTH

Exclusion criteria

• Unable to provide informed consent
• Not planning to remain in Lusaka province for 3 months after discharge

Trial design

250 participants in 2 patient groups

HIV+ patients (Standard of care)

Description:

300 HIV-infected and hospitalized adult patients at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) will be recruited.

Treatment:

Other: Standard of care

Health systems informants

Description:

15 key Zambian health systems informants and leaders who can discuss inpatient care and the process of linking hospitalized patients to HIV care.

Treatment:

Other: Standard of care