Comparing the Effectiveness of Two Alcohol+Adherence Interventions for HIV+ Youth

Summary

Alcohol use among persons with HIV exacerbates health problems and accelerates HIV disease progression. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is the single most important treatment for people living with HIV. However, ART adherence is suboptimal among adolescents and young adults living with HIV, the age group with the fastest growing rates of HIV infection, and great risk of engaging in risky behaviors such as alcohol use. The proposed study will compare the effectiveness of home-based versus clinic-based "Healthy Choices", a brief, 4- session intervention using Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) to address alcohol use, medication adherence, and health outcomes in youth living with HIV (YLH) using a repeated measures design. Unlike previous trials, Healthy Choices will be tested in a "real world" clinical setting and be delivered by community health workers (CHW: already members of the HIV care team). The study population will consist of YLH, ages 16-24, who are current patients at 5 ATN sites. Site staff will recruit potential participants. Youth will be randomized to receive Healthy Choices, either clinic-based or home-based delivered by the same CHW in both conditions. Outcomes are measured at baseline, 4-, 7-, and 13-months. Data collection for biological measures will be through medical record extraction, and self-reported measures will occur using a brief Web-based CASI (computer-administered self-interviewing) survey on an iPad. All intervention sessions will be audio-recorded for MITI fidelity coding, and investigators will support local supervisors during the active intervention phase. We will conduct qualitative interviews with CHWs, supervisors and organization leaders at the end of the trial to obtain information about barriers and facilitators of implementation. Thus, the proposed trial will allow us to use a Type 1 Effectiveness-implementation hybrid design to pilot a sustainable model of MI implementation in real-world youth care settings towards the goals of 1) examining the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and scalability of an efficacious behavioral intervention when delivered by CHWs in real-world adolescent HIV care settings; 2) gathering information about who responds under what contexts; and 3) increasing our understanding of the barriers and facilitators for future implementation. The primary hypothesis is that YLH receiving home-based MET will have greater improvements in alcohol use and viral load than YLH receiving clinic-based MET.

Conditions

• HIV

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET)

The 4-session MET intervention will address alcohol use and HIV medication (ART) adherence. Sessions will be delivered in the clinic or the home by a CHW (outreach worker, etc) already providing services in the clinic. In sessions 1 and 2 (each behavior will get its own session), CHW will elicit the client's view of the problem using MI techniques, building motivation for change by eliciting and reinforcing change talk. The CHW will deliver feedback and discuss the consideration of a behavior change plan option, and the client sets the change plan goal and consolidates commitment. In the last two sessions, the CHW will review the change plan, continue to elicit and reinforce change talk, problem-solve barriers, consolidate commitment, and consider strategies to maintain behavior change.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Westat

  collaborator OTHER

• City University of New York, School of Public Health

  collaborator OTHER

• University of California, San Diego

  collaborator OTHER

• Medical University of South Carolina

  collaborator OTHER

• University of California, Los Angeles

  collaborator OTHER

• Columbia University

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Alabama at Birmingham

  collaborator OTHER

• Wayne State University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Sylvie Naar-King, PhD · Wayne State University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

16 Years

Max Age

24 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2014-07-31

Primary Completion

2018-12-31

Completion

2018-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations