Shaping the Health of Adolescents in Zimbabwe

Summary

The SHAZ! study was a randomized trial that compared a package of life skills education, reproductive health care services, and economic livelihood development to a control package of life skills education and reproductive health care services alone. SHAZ! enrolled young women 16 to 19 years old who had been orphaned and who were currently out of school and not infected with HIV. Individuals participated in the project for up to two years.

Conditions

• HIV

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Life skills education

The life skills curriculum drew upon Stepping Stones and CDC-Zimbabwe Talk Time, developed with input from the target population. It consisted of 14 modules delivered to groups of 25 over 4-6 weeks on: HIV/STI and reproductive health; relationship negotiation; strategies to avoid violence;and identification of safe and risky places in the community. Participants also attended a six-weeks-long home-based care training conducted through Red Cross Zimbabwe, to gain skills on safely caring for people living with HIV.

OTHER

Reproductive health services

All participants were provided a health screening at every study visit and were treated for treatable STIs and minor ailments. They received condoms, and contraceptive pills or injectable free upon request. Participants who tested positive for HIV were referred to local clinics, where the study team assisted with ART registration including payment for CD4 tests required for enrolment.

BEHAVIORAL

Economic livelihoods

The Livelihoods intervention consisted of financial literacy and a choice of vocational training at local training institutes. Courses were 6-months-long, conducted in English, with a practical and a theoretical component. In spite of encouragement to venture outside of accepted gender norms, the most popular courses were hairdressing, garment-making, and receptionist/secretarial and nurse-aid training. Participants who passed developed business plans that were supported with a micro-grant valued at $100US in the form of capital equipment, supplies or additional training.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• UZ-UCSF Collaborative Research Programme

  collaborator OTHER

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  collaborator NIH

• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

  collaborator NIH

• University of California, San Francisco

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Megan Dunbar, DrPH, MPH · Pangea Global AIDS Foundation

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

16 Years

Max Age

19 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2006-02-28

Primary Completion

2008-10-31

Completion

2008-10-31

Countries

• Zimbabwe

Study Locations