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Differentiated prevention and care to reduce the risk of HIV acquisition and transmission among female sex workers in Zimbabwe: Study Protocol for the ‘AMETHIST’ cluster randomised trial

Cowan, Frances ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3087-4422, Machingura, Fortunate, Chabata, Sungai, Ali, Sanni, Busza, Joanna, Steen, Richard, Desmond, Nicola ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2874-8569, Shahmanesh, Maryam, Revill, Paul, Mpofu, Amon, Yekeye, Raymond, Mugurungi, Owen, Phillips, Andrew and Hargreaves, James (2022) 'Differentiated prevention and care to reduce the risk of HIV acquisition and transmission among female sex workers in Zimbabwe: Study Protocol for the ‘AMETHIST’ cluster randomised trial'. Trials, Vol 23, e209.

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Abstract

Background
Female sex workers (FSW) in sub-Saharan Africa are disproportionately affected by HIV and are critical to engage in HIV prevention, testing and care services. We describe the design of our evaluation of the “AMETHIST” intervention, nested within a nationally-scaled programme for FSW in Zimbabwe. We hypothesise that the implementation of this intervention will result in a reduction in the risk of HIV transmission within sex work.
Methods
The AMETHIST intervention (Adapted Microplanning to Eliminate Transmission of HIV in Sex Transactions) is a risk-differentiated intervention for FSW, centred around the implementation of microplanning and self-help groups. It is designed to support uptake of, and adherence to, HIV prevention, testing and treatment behaviours among FSW. Twenty-two towns in Zimbabwe were randomised to receive either the Sisters programme (usual care) or the Sisters programme plus AMETHIST. The composite primary outcome is defined as the proportion of all FSW who are at risk of either HIV acquisition (HIV-negative and not fully protected by prevention interventions) or of HIV transmission (HIV-positive, not virally suppressed and not practicing consistent condom use). The outcome will be assessed after two years of intervention delivery in a respondent-driven sampling survey (total n=4400; n=200 FSW recruited at each site). Primary analysis will use the ‘RDS-II’ method to estimate cluster summaries and will adapt Hayes and Moulton’s ‘2-step’ method produce adjusted effect estimates. An in-depth process evaluation guided by our project trajectory will be undertaken.
Discussion
Innovative pragmatic trials are needed to generate evidence on effectiveness of combination interventions in HIV prevention and treatment in different contexts. We describe the design and analysis of such a study.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: WA Public Health > WA 30 Socioeconomic factors in public health (General)
WC Communicable Diseases > Sexually Transmitted Diseases > WC 140 Sexually transmitted diseases
WC Communicable Diseases > Virus Diseases > Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. HIV Infections > WC 503 Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. HIV infections
WC Communicable Diseases > Virus Diseases > Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. HIV Infections > WC 503.6 Prevention and control
WC Communicable Diseases > Virus Diseases > Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. HIV Infections > WC 503.7 Psychosocial aspects
Faculty: Department: Clinical Sciences & International Health > International Public Health Department
Digital Object Identifer (DOI): https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06119-w
Depositing User: Mary Creegan
Date Deposited: 19 Apr 2022 13:38
Last Modified: 19 Apr 2022 13:38
URI: https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/20262

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