Mobile Technology to Extend Clinic-based Counseling for HIV+s in Uganda

The EXTEND study is a randomized controlled trial to compare the uptake and acceptability, efficacy, and cost of methods of delivery of an alcohol intervention in reducing unhealthy alcohol use and increasing viral suppression among HIV positive persons in Uganda. The study arms are (a) in-person counseling during 2 quarterly clinic visits plus live booster phone calls every three weeks in the interim (b) in-person counseling during 2 quarterly clinic visits plus tech (choice of SMS or IVR) boosters once to twice weekly in the interim; and (c) standard of care (SOC) control (brief unstructured advice, with a wait-listed intervention).

Alcohol consumption is a critical driver of HIV outcomes, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where both are extremely common. Heavy alcohol use has been associated with reduced antiretroviral adherence, decreased HIV suppression, and increased mortality among those with HIV. Thus, reducing unhealthy alcohol use may improve HIV outcomes and is a high priority worldwide. Screening and brief counseling for alcohol use, especially multi-session approaches, have shown evidence for reducing alcohol use in resource rich settings and among persons with HIV. However, there are significant cost and human resource barriers to multiple session interventions in SSA, and it is not known whether alcohol interventions can improve HIV outcomes. Thus, the long-term goal of the EXTEND study is to develop and test interventions to reduce alcohol consumption and improve HIV outcomes, that can be feasibly integrated into routine HIV care in SSA. Multi-session interventions that combine in-person visits with booster phone calls to reinforce the in-person counseling have shown good efficacy. Because cell phone use in Uganda is high, phone-based booster sessions conducted in-between the in-person sessions (that coincide with regularly scheduled clinic visits) may be feasible. However, phone-based booster sessions delivered by a live counselor ("live boosters") can be costly, time-consuming, limited to working hours, and dependent on good phone connections. Alternatively, automated cell phone-based booster sessions ("tech boosters"), can be conducted via interactive systems such as two-way Short Message Service (SMS, i.e. text messaging) or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) that allow for brief interactive sessions, with messages that are tailored to the participants' drinking goals and gender. Such automated tailored mobile phone-based interventions have been successful in improving several health behaviors in diverse populations. However, the uptake, acceptability, cost, and efficacy of live and tech booster calls for interventions for reducing alcohol use and improving HIV outcomes in SSA is not known. The investigators hypothesize that automated mobile phone-based technology can be leveraged as an efficacious way to implement multi-session alcohol interventions at a low burden and cost to both providers and patients in low resource settings. Objectives The EXTEND study is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a goal of estimating the uptake and acceptability, preliminary efficacy, and cost of methods of delivery of an intervention to reduce unhealthy drinking and HIV viral failure among persons in HIV care in rural Uganda (n=270). The RCT study arms are: 1. in-person counseling during 2 quarterly clinic visits plus live booster phone calls every three weeks in the interim; 2. in-person counseling during 2 quarterly clinic visits plus tech (choice of SMS or IVR) boosters once to twice weekly in the interim; and 3. standard of care (SOC) control (brief unstructured advice, with a wait-listed intervention). This study will be conducted in a large rural Ugandan HIV clinic. The end products of this study will be the preliminary comparisons of key outcomes to estimate effect sizes and inform the design of a future large-scale trial. The long-term aim is to implement interventions that reduce alcohol use and improve HIV outcomes feasibly and at low cost in low resource settings.