Young Women's Health CoOp (Cooperative) in Cape Town

This supplement study is an adaptation of the larger NIH-funded parent study, the Women's Health CoOp+, which tests a combination biobehavioral HIV prevention approach to enhance standard HIV testing practices for alcohol and drug (AOD)-using women across the city of Pretoria, South Africa. The current supplemental study seeks to reach AOD-using female adolescents who experience the greatest burden of new HIV infections and are currently underserved by HIV and drug-treatment programs in Cape Town, South Africa and test the validation of both the instrument and adapted intervention.

This study is testing and validating both the revised instrument and adapted intervention through a small pilot trial where a cluster randomized design is used to recruit 100 participants through snowball sampling by community to either the YWHC condition or standard HIV Counseling and Testing (HCT); collect biological specimens to screen for recent drug use, pregnancy and HIV infection and provide referrals for care to resources; conduct process evaluation measures for satisfaction and a 1-month follow-up post-intervention interview assessing the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of conducting this intervention among vulnerable young women and linking them to care. Young women from disadvantaged communities in Cape Town who have dropped out of school and who use AODs are highly vulnerable to physical victimization (violence and sexual victimization) from any perpetrator, including main sexual partners and drug-related sexual risks for HIV. Yet these vulnerable young women remain underserved by current HIV and drug treatment programs in the region, even though they are experiencing the greatest burden of new HIV infections in the country. The adapted Young Women's Health CoOp (YWHC) intervention has a high likelihood of wider implementation, sustainability, and a significant public health impact by reducing the exceedingly high HIV incidence amongst the most vulnerable populations in South Africa.