TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of community-based voluntary counselling and testing on HIV incidence and social and behavioural outcomes (NIMH Project Accept; HPTN 043)
T2 - A cluster-randomised trial
AU - Coates, Thomas J.
AU - Kulich, Michal
AU - Celentano, David D.
AU - Zelaya, Carla E.
AU - Chariyalertsak, Suwat
AU - Chingono, Alfred
AU - Gray, Glenda
AU - Mbwambo, Jessie K.K.
AU - Morin, Stephen F.
AU - Richter, Linda
AU - Sweat, Michael
AU - van Rooyen, Heidi
AU - McGrath, Nuala
AU - Fiamma, Agnès
AU - Laeyendecker, Oliver
AU - Piwowar-Manning, Estelle
AU - Szekeres, Greg
AU - Donnell, Deborah
AU - Eshleman, Susan H.
N1 - Funding Information:
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) funding for the project was through a cooperative agreement mechanism that allowed the NIMH Project Officer assigned to the study to participate in technical project activities. The NIMH project officer participated in steering committee meetings and reviewed data and safety monitoring board and study monitoring committee reports before submission. The US National Institute of Mental Health provided funding as a cooperative agreement to DC (contract number U01MH066687), MS (U01MH066688), TJC (U01MH066701), and SFM (U01MH066702). The Division of AIDS of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases provided funding to SE (grant number U01AI068613/UM1AI068613), DD (U01AI068617/UM1AI068617), and SV and WE-S (U01AI068619/UM1AI068619). Study implementation was supervised and managed by principal investigators and project managers at the study sites. Additional funding was provided by the Office of AIDS Research of the US National Institutes of Health, and by the Division of Intramural Research (OL), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health. The steering committee had 11 members (Thomas J Coates [Chair], David D Celentano, Suwat Chariyalertsak, Alfred Chingono, Deborah Donnell, Glenda Gray, Michal Kulich, Jessie K K Mbwambo, Stephen F Morin, Linda Richter, and Michael Sweat). Some of the information in this report has been previously presented. 30 We thank the communities that partnered with us for this research, all study participants for their contributions, and study staff and volunteers at all participating institutions for their work and dedication. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Use of trade names is for identification purposes only and does not constitute endorsement by the NIH. Views expressed are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of sponsoring agencies.
PY - 2014/5
Y1 - 2014/5
N2 - Background: Although several interventions have shown reduced HIV incidence in clinical trials, the community-level effect of effective interventions on the epidemic when scaled up is unknown. We investigated whether a multicomponent, multilevel social and behavioural prevention strategy could reduce HIV incidence, increase HIV testing, reduce HIV risk behaviour, and change social and behavioural norms. Methods: For this phase 3 cluster-randomised controlled trial, 34 communities in four sites in Africa and 14 communities in Thailand were randomly allocated in matched pairs to receive 36 months of community-based voluntary counselling and testing for HIV (intervention group) or standard counselling and testing alone (control group) between January, 2001, and December, 2011. The intervention was designed to make testing more accessible in communities, engage communities through outreach, and provide support services after testing. Randomisation was done by a computer-generated code and was not masked. Data were collected at baseline (n=14 567) and after intervention (n=56 683) by cross-sectional random surveys of community residents aged 18-32 years. The primary outcome was HIV incidence and was estimated with a cross-sectional multi-assay algorithm and antiretroviral drug screening assay. Thailand was excluded from incidence analyses because of low HIV prevalence. This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00203749. Findings: The estimated incidence of HIV in the intervention group was 1·52% versus 1·81% in the control group with an estimated reduction in HIV incidence of 13·9% (relative risk [RR] 0·86, 95% CI 0·73-1·02; p=0·082). HIV incidence was significantly reduced in women older than 24 years (RR=0·70, 0·54-0·90; p=0·0085), but not in other age or sex subgroups. Community-based voluntary counselling and testing increased testing rates by 25% overall (12-39; p=0·0003), by 45% (25-69; p<0·0001) in men and 15% (3-28; p=0·013) in women. No overall effect on sexual risk behaviour was recorded. Social norms regarding HIV testing were improved by 6% (95% CI 3-9) in communities in the intervention group. Interpretation: These results are sufficiently robust, especially when taking into consideration the combined results of modest reductions in HIV incidence combined with increases in HIV testing and reductions in HIV risk behaviour, to recommend the Project Accept approach as an integral part of all interventions (including treatment as prevention) to reduce HIV transmission at the community level.
AB - Background: Although several interventions have shown reduced HIV incidence in clinical trials, the community-level effect of effective interventions on the epidemic when scaled up is unknown. We investigated whether a multicomponent, multilevel social and behavioural prevention strategy could reduce HIV incidence, increase HIV testing, reduce HIV risk behaviour, and change social and behavioural norms. Methods: For this phase 3 cluster-randomised controlled trial, 34 communities in four sites in Africa and 14 communities in Thailand were randomly allocated in matched pairs to receive 36 months of community-based voluntary counselling and testing for HIV (intervention group) or standard counselling and testing alone (control group) between January, 2001, and December, 2011. The intervention was designed to make testing more accessible in communities, engage communities through outreach, and provide support services after testing. Randomisation was done by a computer-generated code and was not masked. Data were collected at baseline (n=14 567) and after intervention (n=56 683) by cross-sectional random surveys of community residents aged 18-32 years. The primary outcome was HIV incidence and was estimated with a cross-sectional multi-assay algorithm and antiretroviral drug screening assay. Thailand was excluded from incidence analyses because of low HIV prevalence. This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00203749. Findings: The estimated incidence of HIV in the intervention group was 1·52% versus 1·81% in the control group with an estimated reduction in HIV incidence of 13·9% (relative risk [RR] 0·86, 95% CI 0·73-1·02; p=0·082). HIV incidence was significantly reduced in women older than 24 years (RR=0·70, 0·54-0·90; p=0·0085), but not in other age or sex subgroups. Community-based voluntary counselling and testing increased testing rates by 25% overall (12-39; p=0·0003), by 45% (25-69; p<0·0001) in men and 15% (3-28; p=0·013) in women. No overall effect on sexual risk behaviour was recorded. Social norms regarding HIV testing were improved by 6% (95% CI 3-9) in communities in the intervention group. Interpretation: These results are sufficiently robust, especially when taking into consideration the combined results of modest reductions in HIV incidence combined with increases in HIV testing and reductions in HIV risk behaviour, to recommend the Project Accept approach as an integral part of all interventions (including treatment as prevention) to reduce HIV transmission at the community level.
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U2 - 10.1016/S2214-109X(14)70032-4
DO - 10.1016/S2214-109X(14)70032-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 25103167
AN - SCOPUS:84899625176
SN - 2214-109X
VL - 2
SP - e267-e277
JO - The Lancet Global Health
JF - The Lancet Global Health
IS - 5
ER -