Innovative Tools to Expand HIV Self-Testing

Summary

The I-TEST study builds upon two participatory approaches, open challenge contests and entrepreneurship training. The study utilizes open challenge contest to generate youth-driven interventions on strategies to promote HIV self-testing and other testing for other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among young people in Nigeria. Open challenge contests involves leveraging on the knowledge and strengths of the crowd (in this case young people) to generate solutions to an issue. Following completion of one of the open challenge contest, was the Designathon contest where young people in Nigeria collaborated to develop new services and products for promoting self-testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, guided by human-centered, design thinking framework. After which, six teams from the Designathon were selected to move onto an Innovation bootcamp. The Innovation bootcamp was a 4-week long accelerated training program for young people to delve into the world of entrepreneurial and innovation management skills, while applying basic research principles. At the end of the course, 5 finalist teams were selected to pilot test their innovation plan in the community for a duration of 6 months, beginning July 2019.

This study is focused on evaluating the effectiveness of these five youth participatory interventions on HIV testing and other key prevention among at risk youth (14-24 years old in Nigeria).This research study will involve undertaking a prospective one-year assessment of these five pilot interventions.

Conditions

• HIV/AIDS
• Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Interventions

COMBINATION_PRODUCT

BeterDoc

The intervention would be promoted using flyers at community events and schools. The flyers will provide information on the "BeterDoc Safety Kits" and the location where the pack can be obtained for individuals who are interested. For this pilot study, the intervention will be implemented in Ibadan, Dugbe and Agbowo in Oyo state.

COMBINATION_PRODUCT

IUNGO

The intervention would be promoted using flyers at community events and schools. The flyers will provide information on the HIV self-testing kits and the location where the pack can be obtained for individuals who are interested. For this pilot study, the intervention will be implemented in Akure South, Orita-Obele, Ipinsa, Ilara Mokin and Ijare in Ondo state.

COMBINATION_PRODUCT

SMART Pack

The SMART pack is a re-branded and repackaged box for HIV self-testing kits. The intervention aims to promote distribution of HIVST kits through in institutions, vocational centers, and social media platforms. The intervention would also include a referral systems, where participants provided with the HIV self-testing kits are provided with information with youth-friendly health facilities for uptake of testing for sexually transmitted infections. The intervention would be promoted using flyers at community events and schools. The flyers will provide information on the SMART pack and the location where the pack can be obtained for individuals who are interested. For this pilot study, the intervention will be implemented in Yaba local government area in Lagos state.

COMBINATION_PRODUCT

Luv Box

The Luv box is packaged in two colors: blue and pink. The LUVBox would be made available in supermarkets, on-line stores, mini-marts, pharmacies, neighborhood stores and markets, for easy accessibility in hard to reach areas. The intervention would be promoted using flyers at community events and schools. The flyers will provide information on the "Luv Box" and the location where the pack can be obtained for individuals who are interested.For this pilot study, the intervention will be implemented in Yaba in Lagos state.

COMBINATION_PRODUCT

Bili Vibes

The HIV self-testing kits will be available for interested individuals at the community youth events. These events and information the HIV self-testing kits will be on flyers that would be promoted at community centers and schools. For this pilot study, the intervention will be implemented in Ngenevu/Bunker communities in Enugu state.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  collaborator NIH

• Nigerian Institute of Medical Research

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  collaborator OTHER

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

  collaborator NIH

• Washington University School of Medicine

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Juliet Iwelunmor, PhD · Washington University School of Medicine

• Joseph Tucker, MD · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

• Oliver Ezechi, MD · Nigerian Institute of Medical Research

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

14 Years

Max Age

24 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-07-01

Primary Completion

2020-07-31

Completion

2020-09-01

FDA Device

Yes

Countries

• Nigeria

Study Locations