Social Media for ART Adherence and Retention in Adolescents and Young Adults: the Vijana-SMART Study

University of Washington

Status: Completed

Conditions: HIV-1-infection; Adherence, Medication; Depression

Treatments: Behavioral: Vijana-SMART

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05634265

STUDY00002554

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this study is to investigate whether a virtual peer support group improves ART knowledge, adherence, and mental health in youth living with HIV in Kenya.

Full description

Adolescents and young adults (AYA) living with HIV show lower ART adherence, higher loss to follow-up and higher AIDS-related mortality than other age groups. Innovative approaches are needed that address AYA's unique needs and improve their adherence and retention in HIV care. There is evidence that peer support and mobile messaging with healthcare workers (HCW) are two strategies that may be effective in this group, but their evaluation has been limited and no interventions have combined them. Since 2014, youth-run virtual support groups have spontaneously started at HIV clinics, using the mobile social media application WhatsApp. These groups present valuable case studies from which the proposed project will develop a structured social media intervention that combines peer and HCW support to improve ART adherence and retention, guided by the preferences of AYA. The SPECIFIC AIMS are to (1) Characterize the existing WhatsApp groups through in-depth interviews with members and detailed content analysis of the group's communications during a 6-week observation period. This will define the elements and features desired by AYA in a social media intervention. (2) Guided by findings from Aim 1, behavioral theory, and the study team's ongoing research on mobile messaging to improve ART adherence, to develop and refine structured content for a reproducible WhatsApp intervention that incorporates peer and HCW interaction. (3) Pilot the structured intervention for 6 months in another clinic and evaluate its impact on intermediate outcomes ART knowledge, depression and stigma.

Enrollment: 55 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 14 to 24 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Living with HIV
• On ART
• Aware of HIV status
• Has access to WhatsApp
• Literate

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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55 participants in 1 patient group

Pilot

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be offered the Vijana-SMART WhatsApp group intervention

Treatment:

Behavioral: Vijana-SMART