Strategies to AchieVe Viral Suppression for Youth With HIV

Although there have been advances in antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV, adolescents and young adults living with HIV (AHIV) continue to have disparate HIV outcomes particularly viral suppression (VS), when compared to other populations likely related to multi-layered challenges (social determinants, cognitive development), system, and biomedical challenges including the reliance on oral ART as the only choice for HIV treatment. Given that approximately 1/3 of AHIV despite being in care fail to attain or sustain VS with resultant individual and public health risk, there is a need to develop real-world implementable interventions that can improve the participants virologic outcomes. The Strategies to AchieVe Viral Suppression for Youth with HIV (SAVVY) Study aims to 1) optimize personal ART choice by using the HIV-ASSIST clinical program to inform CHOICE counseling regarding an AHIV's preferred approach, including the possibility of long-acting injectable ART (LAI-ART); 2) facilitate access to the participants preferred choice through deploying a focused team to navigate barriers to attaining LAI-ART; and 3) decipher and address the patient, provider, and systemic barriers to the uptake and routinization of LAI-ART among AHIV by applying an implementation science framework and assessing cost-effectiveness providing critical data to support comprehensive approaches to optimizing ART and VS for AHIV, a key population identified in the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States Initiative.

Adolescents and young adults (AHIV) ages 12-30 years have disproportionately poorer outcomes across the HIV care continuum, including lower rates of adherence to oral ART (oART) and viral suppression (VS) than older adults, correlating with individual risk of poor health and disease progression and public health risk of secondary transmission. AHIV are a priority population in the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States Initiative (EHE). Unique multi-layered factors (e.g., cognitive development, psychosocial determinants, system barriers) underlie AHIV's nonadherence and VS; therefore, AHIV-specific interventions are needed to address those factors and ultimately improve VS. Toward this aim, the investigators has shown that AHIV are more likely to be retained in care and achieve and maintain VS if cared for at clinics with youth-friendly structures and services, more likely to achieve VS with single tablet regimens (STR) vs. multi-tablet oral ART (oART) regimens, and have high interest in ART strategies not taken orally, specifically long-acting injectable ART (LAI-ART). These findings underscore the importance of engaging AHIV in decision-making and providing access to alternative biomedical strategies that obviate daily adherence, like LAI-ART, should the participant choose. Though uptake and roll-out has been slow, LAI-ART (cabotegravir/rilpivirine) administered q4-8 weeks has been approved for HIV treatment in those \>12 years-old who have achieved VS-excluding up to 50% of all AHIV due to the decreased likelihood of VS. The investigators have reported provider biases and disparities in ART initiation by patient age and have concern that AHIV may have decreased access to LAI-ART, resulting in a tiered system that precludes LAI-ART access from those who may want and benefit from it most. AHIV need biomedical and care delivery innovations to address the challenges meeting EHE goals by optimizing feasibility of delivering novel biomedical tools for AHIV through minimizing medication and healthcare system barriers. The central hypothesis of the Strategies to AchieVe Viral Suppression for Youth with HIV (SAVVY) Study is that informed choice, counseling on ART options, and facilitating access, will increase rates of achieving and sustaining VS among AHIV. The study proposes to present and solicit informed choice of ART among both AHIV with and without VS, including facilitating LAI-ART (if VS can be achieved). For AHIV who prefer LAI-ART, the SAVVY intervention will support AHIV in successfully meeting or maintaining criteria (VL\<50 copies/mL) for LAI-ART consideration, and deploy a focused team that facilitates access to LAI-ART. Study outcomes include VS and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for AHIV undergoing the SAVVY intervention, identification of implementation barriers utilizing an established implementation science framework, and assessment of the cost-effectiveness of SAVVY using an economic-epidemiologic model. The investigators interdisciplinary team has expertise to implement the SAVVY study and the investigators anticipate that the results of The SAVVY study will inform the real-world implementation and optimization of LAI-ART AHIV toward reducing disparities in outcomes and ending the epidemic for the key population of AHIV.