Thol'Impilo: Bringing People Into Care

Summary

The main objective of this study is to compare the effectiveness of combinations of three patient-oriented strategies, compared to the standard of care, to increase the proportion of patients who enter-into-care for HIV within 90 days of testing HIV positive.

Conditions

• HIV

Interventions

OTHER

Point of care CD4 testing

Participants in this arm will receive POC CD4 testing using the PIMA™ CD4 test system. Results will be made available to the participant within 20 to 25 minutes, before the participant leaves the HCT room. Participants will be given a copy of their results, which will be affixed to their referral letter, and they will be educated on the meaning of the CD4 results in relation to their health. This session will only be performed once at the time of issuing POC CD4 results.

BEHAVIORAL

Care Facilitation

The goal of this intervention is to provide on-going counselling using a combination of motivational and strengths-based counselling approaches.This is a time limited intervention with a maximum of 5 client sessions over a 90-day period. Participants will also be transitioned out of the intervention upon successful entry into HIV care. Sessions will be done using both face-to-face and telephonic approaches, although the former is more preferred.

OTHER

Transport support

The goal of this intervention is to address one of the most frequently noted structural barrier to entry-into-care in resource constrained settings: prohibitive distance or transport cost to reach a health facility.This is a time limited intervention with a maximum of 3 transport assists for healthcare visits over a 90-day period. Transport assistance is provided in the form of reimbursements to claims submitted by the participant after a self-reported HIV care clinic visits. Participants in this arm, receive their transport support through in-person collection or via cell phone transfer. Transport support amounts are standardised according to geographical area.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

  collaborator FED

• Johns Hopkins University

  collaborator OTHER

• London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Witwatersrand, South Africa

  collaborator OTHER

• The Aurum Institute NPC

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Violet Chihota, PhD · The Aurum Institute NPC

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2012-06-30

Primary Completion

2016-07-31

Completion

2016-07-31

Countries

• South Africa

Study Locations