Postpartum Adherence Clubs to Enhance Support: the PACER Study

Summary

The Western Cape province of South Africa (SA) is changing the way it treats pregnant women with HIV. Now, all HIV-infected pregnant women, regardless of how sick or healthy they are, will receive antiretroviral treatment (ART) for life ("Option B+"). However, there are few well-developed models of service delivery to support this change to "Option B+" in the Western Cape and many parts of the continent.

The parent study -- Strategies to Optimize ART Services for Maternal \& Child Health (MCH-ART)-- is testing two clinic-based models of service delivery for Option B+ . To complement MCH-ART, this study, PACER, will test whether community-based Adherence Clubs are an effective model for keeping breastfeeding women in HIV care after pregnancy. These clubs have been used to free up space at ART clinics by moving stable HIV+ patients to community-based services, but they have not been studied as an effective strategy among breastfeeding women after delivery. PACER seeks to address this gap.

Conditions

• HIV

Interventions

OTHER

Community-based Adherence Clubs

Women in the AC arm are prescribed 2 months of their current ART medication (compared to 1 month in the SOC) and will be advised to go to the AC office immediately, where they will be scheduled for their first session. Women will attend AC meetings every two months. At these meetings, women will receive a 2 month supply of medication, health education and peer-support. A trained Community Health Worker (CHW) will also collect blood samples, weight, and current signs/symptoms from women. Each participant has 5 working days after their AC session to come and collect her medication. Those who have defaulted will be followed up by the CHW via phone calls and, possibly, home visits. If reached, women will be told to return immediately to the main ART facility for receipt of ART care.

OTHER

Standard of Care for Mothers

Women will be referred immediately from the maternity ART clinic to their nearest adult ART clinic at their first postpartum clinic visit. At referral, they receive an initial 1-month supply of their current ART medication. At the first appointment after transfer into the general ART service, patients undergo clinical history and examination by a doctor or clinical nurse practitioner. Laboratory investigations are ordered according to standard protocols or based on clinician discretion. For the 1st 4 months in the new service, stable patients are dispensed 1 month of ART; subsequent visits are 2-monthly for medication refill, with clinician review 6-monthly; patients with particular clinical or psychosocial concerns may be reviewed more regularly, or referred to higher levels of care.

OTHER

Standard of Care for Infants

All infants will receive care at their nearest primary care clinic. Following national protocols, all HIV-infected mothers are issued a 6-week supply of nevirapine syrup after delivery and counselled on daily nevirapine prophylaxis. Infant follow-up takes place within 1 week postpartum with the mother (at the MOU) and then at 6 weeks postpartum (at the nearest primary care clinic) when HIV PCR testing of the infant is carried out. Following national protocols, infants who are breastfed beyond 6 weeks receive HIV PCR testing 2-4 weeks after the cessation of breastfeeding, again conducted at the nearest City of Cape Town primary care clinic.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  collaborator NIH

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

  collaborator NIH

• Columbia University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Elaine J Abrams, MD · ICAP at Columbia University

• Landon Myer, MD · University of Cape Town

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-02-28

Primary Completion

2016-10-31

Completion

2016-10-31

Countries

• South Africa

Study Locations