HIV/AIDS
Conditions
Keywords
HIV Care Continuum, Ancillary Support Services
Brief summary
The BRIDGES Project seeks to test a program intended to help women living with HIV who face specific barriers due to culture, gender, violence, trauma, adverse mental health, and substance use to be able to better access HIV care. This program was created and tried with women living with HIV, as previously studies have indicated that women with these experiences are less likely to have stable HIV care. The BRIDGES Project will use Peer Navigators, who are other women living with HIV who have had similar experiences and have been successful in accessing care, to help other women living with HIV to access HIV care and stay in HIV care. The BRIDGES Project will also provide support to women through group sessions co-facilitated by a licensed clinical therapist and Peer Navigator. Through participation in BRIDGES, women will: (1) build skills to cope with HIV care and treatment barriers (e.g., violence, trauma, adverse mental health, substance use); (2) be connected to HIV treatment and other support services (e.g., domestic violence, mental health, substance use); and (3) learn interpersonal skills to connect with support (e.g., service providers, peers, friends, family) when faced with new or ongoing barriers.
Detailed description
The BRIDGES Project intervention is culturally-tailored intervention for syndemic-affected cis- and transgender women living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA) that aims to: 1) build skills to cope with syndemic-related affective distress, 2) facilitate linkages to both HIV treatment and relevant ancillary service providers (e.g., domestic violence, mental health, substance use), and 3) teach women interpersonal skills to activate social support networks (e.g., service providers, friends, family) when faced with new or ongoing barriers. Participants in the The BRIDGES Project are estimated to demonstrate improvements in HIV care outcomes (i.e., linkage to HIV care, self-efficacy in ART adherence, retention in HIV care) and syndemic-support outcomes (i.e., coping skills, activated social support networks, linkage to and receipt of ancillary support services) compared to HIV-infected women assigned to standard of care (self-guided access and use of Ryan White case management).
Interventions
BEHAVIORALThe BRIDGES Project Intervention
The BRIDGES Project will use Peer Navigators, who are other women living with HIV who have had similar experiences and have been successful in accessing care, to help other women living with HIV to access HIV care and stay in HIV care. The BRIDGES Project will also provide support to women through group sessions co-facilitated by a licensed clinical therapist and Peer Navigator. Through participation in BRIDGES, women will: (1) build skills to cope with HIV care and treatment barriers (e.g., violence, trauma, adverse mental health, substance use); (2) be connected to HIV treatment and other support services (e.g., domestic violence, mental health, substance use); and (3) learn interpersonal skills to connect with support (e.g., service providers, peers, friends, family) when faced with new or ongoing barriers.
Sponsors
Stanford University
California HIV/AIDS Research Program
University of California, San Diego
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
Parallel intervention and control groups.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* 18 years of age or older * Identify as female, including cis-gender female or transgender female * Living with HIV/AIDS * Ability to speak and understand English * Self-report one or more syndemic factor(s) \[lifetime history of or current: trauma, physical violence and/or sexual violence, PTSD symptoms, substance use, adverse mental health\] * identification as one of the following: out-of-care or unstable in care, newly diagnosed, never in care, or linked to care but have fallen out of care\]
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Retention in Care | 6-months post-Baseline | 2 clinic visits 90+days apart, or as directed by an ART prescribing provider, assessed by medical record extraction |
| Linkage to Care | 3-months post-Baseline | Documentation of a clinical visit date with an ART-prescribing provider (yes, no), assessed by medical record extraction; days to first clinical visit since baseline (continuous), assessed by medical record extraction |
| Self-Efficacy for ART Adherence | 3-months post-Baseline | Validated self-report measures of ART regime adherence |
| ART Initiation AND/OR Retention | 3-months post-Baseline | Validated self-report measures of ART regime adherence |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Ancillary Support Service Access | 6-months post-Baseline | Self-Reported Support Service Access |
| Coping Self-Efficacy | 6-months post-Baseline | Validated Measure of Coping Self-Efficacy (Coping Self Efficacy, Chesney et al 2006; Scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is greater coping self-efficacy.) |
| Social Support Network Activation | 6-months post-Baseline | Validated Measure of Social Support, (MMOS-SS; Moser et al. 2012; Scale of 1 to 5 where 5 is greater social support.) |
| Ancillary Support Service Linkage | 3-months post-Baseline | Self-Reported Support Service Linkage |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ART Adherence | 6-months post-Baseline | Validated self-report adherence measures, proportion of WLHA attaining HIV viral suppression (\<200 copies/mL, assessed by medical record extraction). |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed