Birdthistle, I;
Carter, DJ;
Mthiyane, NT;
Orindi, BO;
Muuo, S;
Chimbindi, N;
Ziraba, A;
... Floyd, S; + view all
(2021)
Early impact of the DREAMS partnership on young women's knowledge of their HIV status: causal analysis of population-based surveys in Kenya and South Africa.
Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health
10.1136/jech-2020-216042.
(In press).
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Knowledge of one's HIV status is the gateway to treatment and prevention, but remains low among young people. We investigated the early impact (2016-2017) of Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe (DREAMS), a multisectoral HIV prevention package, on knowledge of HIV status among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW). METHODS: In 2017, randomly selected AGYW were enrolled into surveys, N=1081 aged 15-22 years in Nairobi slum settlements, and N=2174 aged 13-22 years in rural KwaZulu-Natal. We estimated the causal effect of being a DREAMS beneficiary on knowledge of HIV status (those who self-reported as HIV-positive or tested HIV-negative in the past year), accounting for an AGYW's propensity to be a DREAMS beneficiary. RESULTS: In Nairobi, knowledge of HIV status was higher among DREAMS beneficiaries compared with non-beneficiaries (92% vs 69%, adjusted OR=8.7; 95% CI 5.8 to 12.9), with DREAMS predicted to increase the outcome by 28%, from 65% if none were a DREAMS beneficiary to 93% if all were beneficiaries. The increase attributable to DREAMS was larger among younger participants: 32% and 23% among those aged 15-17 and 18-22 years, respectively. In KwaZulu-Natal, knowledge of status was higher among DREAMS beneficiaries aged 13-17 years (37% vs 26% among non-beneficiaries), with a 9% difference due to DREAMS (95% CI 4.8% to 14.4%), and no evidence of effect among 18-22 years (-2.8%; 95% CI -11.1% to 5.7%). CONCLUSION: DREAMS substantially increased knowledge of HIV status among AGYW in Nairobi, and among younger but not older AGYW in KwaZulu-Natal. Adolescent girls can be reached early (before age 18) with community-based HIV testing programmes in diverse high-prevalence settings, with a large impact on the proportion who know their HIV status.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Early impact of the DREAMS partnership on young women's knowledge of their HIV status: causal analysis of population-based surveys in Kenya and South Africa |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1136/jech-2020-216042 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2020-216042 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute for Global Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute for Global Health > Infection and Population Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10135678 |
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