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Adolescents Living With HIV (ALWH): Social Networks, Adherence and Retention

NCT04077047 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 60

Last updated 2026-01-02

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

human immunodeficiency virus / acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is the second leading cause of death in Africa. Adolescents living with HIV (ALWH) are at increased risk for HIV-related morbidity and mortality due to poor retention in HIV care and suboptimal antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence. Despite having the world's largest population of Adolescents living with HIV (ALWH) (15-24 years, n=870,000), only 14% of South African ALWH are on ART, 12% are retained in HIV care 1-2 years after ART initiation, and 10% are virally suppressed. During treatment interruption, the effects of ART quickly reverse, increasing transmission risk, treatment resistance, and potentially fatal complications. Unless their treatment retention and adherence improves, ALWH will continue to transmit the virus to their sexual partners and die prematurely.

While social support is often viewed as a bridge that joins ALWH to key resources within their environments, little is known about which types of social support are most impactful and from whom within their network, particularly among ALWH in endemic countries. Moreover, many South African ALWH lack social support from key social network members due to lack of HIV status disclosure, increasing their risk for poorer HIV-related outcomes when compare to their disclosed peers. Social network interventions (i.e., those that leverage the resources within one's network to improve behaviors and outcomes) that meet the needs of both ALWH who are disclosed and non-disclosed are needed, but lacking. Such inventions have the potential to facilitate appraisal support, during which ALWH receive targeted assistance with identifying appropriate and trustworthy people in their lives. More broadly, there exists a lack empirically supported interventions aimed at improving retention in HIV care and ART adherence for ALWH in low-middle income countries.

This proposal follows the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), a comprehensive framework for optimizing and evaluating multicomponent behavioral interventions.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

iEngage

The intervention is a network-based, social support intervention to improve Adolescents living with HIV (ALWH) retention in HIV care and antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

    collaborator NIH

  • Wake Forest University Health Sciences

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Tiarney Ritchwood, PhD · Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
15 Years
Max Age
21 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2022-09-01
Primary Completion
2025-07-17
Completion
2025-07-31

Countries

  • United States
  • South Africa

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT04077047 on ClinicalTrials.gov