Outcomes for Antiretroviral Therapy Patients Receiving Palliative Care

Summary

Despite overwhelming need for effective HIV palliative care in sub-Saharan Africa, a systematic appraisal of the literature found almost no outcome or evaluative evidence.

Aim:

The investigators aim to evaluate the efficacy of HIV palliative care training and a simple palliative care assessment tool provided to nurses of patients on Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), and to evaluate this in terms of patient outcomes under clinical experimental conditions in 2 African countries using randomised controlled trial (RCT) designs.

Intervention being tested:

Within each well-established HIV ART clinic, patients will be randomly allocated to either continue receiving standard care (control group) or to receive standard care plus appointments with a clinic nurse trained in basic palliative care (intervention group).

Methods:

Design: Each Phase III clinical trial (i.e. one trial in each of 2 countries) will be powered and conducted in parallel to a common research design protocol, thus permitting evidence of outcomes that reflects 2 different ART providers, providing evidence of palliative care efficacy relevant to different HIV care settings.

Primary outcome: Each trial has been powered to a primary endpoint of pain control.

Secondary outcomes: The secondary outcomes are the core domains of palliative care as defined by the WHO (i.e. physical, including symptoms, psychological, social and spiritual) and measured by the APCA African POS. Further secondary outcomes measured will be: adherence to treatment; risk behaviours; health-related quality of life; psychological morbidity.

Inclusion: Patients will be screened and invited into the trial if they are on ART, score 3-5 on the 0-5 APCA African POS pain or symptom items, are 18 years or older, and can give informed consent to trial entry and data collection.

Analysis: An intention-to-treat analysis will be conducted to determine treatment response differences between the two conditions. In order to maximise the efficiency of longitudinal data, multi-level modelling will be applied as appropriate.

Conditions

• HIV

Interventions

OTHER

Palliative care

Regular appointments with an existing clinic nurse who has been trained in palliative care, the patient is asked about their physical, psychological, social and spiritual problems, and a care management plan devised with referral as necessary.

OTHER

Standard care

Patients attend monthly for their ART monitoring and prescription filling, and a multiprofessional team is available as necessary.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University College, London

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Cape Town

  collaborator OTHER

• King's College London

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Richard Harding, PhD · King's College London

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2011-05-31

Primary Completion

2013-05-31

Completion

2013-08-31

Countries

• Kenya
• South Africa

Study Locations