Adaptation of the Client Diagnostic Questionnaire for East Africa.

Research increasingly involves cross-cultural work with non-English-speaking populations, necessitating translation and cultural validation of research tools. This paper describes the process of translating and criterion validation of the Client Diagnostic Questionnaire (CDQ) for use in a multisite study in Kenya and Uganda. The English CDQ was translated into Swahili, Dholuo (Kenya) and Runyankole/Rukiga (Uganda) by expert translators. The translated documents underwent face validation by a bilingual committee, who resolved unclear statements, agreed on final translations and reviewed back translations to English. A diagnostic interview by a mental health specialist was used for criterion validation, and Kappa statistics assessed the strength of agreement between non-specialist scores and mental health professionals' diagnoses. Achieving semantic equivalence between translations was a challenge. Validation analysis was done with 30 participants at each site (median age 32.3 years (IQR = (26.5, 36.3)); 58 (64.4%) female). The sensitivity was 86.7%, specificity 64.4%, positive predictive value 70.9% and negative predictive value 82.9%. Diagnostic accuracy by the non-specialist was 75.6%. Agreement was substantial for major depressive episode and positive alcohol (past 6 months) and alcohol abuse (past 30 days). Agreement was moderate for other depressive disorders, panic disorder and psychosis screen; fair for generalized anxiety, drug abuse (past 6 months) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); and poor for drug abuse (past 30 days). Variability of agreement between sites was seen for drug use (past 6 months) and PTSD. Our study successfully adapted the CDQ for use among people living with HIV in East Africa. We established that trained non-specialists can use the CDQ to screen for common mental health and substance use disorders with reasonable accuracy. Its use has the potential to increase case identification, improve linkage to mental healthcare, and improve outcomes. We recommend further studies to establish the psychometric properties of the translated tool.

Patient perceptions of facilitators and barriers to reducing hazardous alcohol use among people living with HIV in East Africa.

BACKGROUND: Hazardous alcohol use among people living with HIV is associated with poor outcomes and increased morbidity and mortality. Understanding the hazardous drinking experiences of people living with HIV is needed to reduce their alcohol use. METHODS: We conducted 60 interviews among people living with HIV in East Africa with hazardous drinking histories. Interviews and Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) scores were conducted 41 - 60 months after their baseline assessment of alcohol use to identify facilitators and barriers to reduced alcohol use over time. RESULTS: People living with HIV who stopped or reduced hazardous drinking were primarily motivated by their HIV condition and desire for longevity. Facilitators of reduced drinking included health care workers' recommendations to reduce drinking (despite little counseling and no referrals) and social support. In those continuing to drink at hazardous levels, barriers to reduced drinking were stress, social environment, alcohol accessibility and alcohol dependency. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions that capacity-build professional and lay health care workers with the skills and resources to decrease problematic alcohol use, along with alcohol cessation in peer support structures, should be explored.

Adolescent and young adult preferences for financial incentives to support adherence to antiretroviral therapy in Kenya: a mixed methods study.

INTRODUCTION: To develop a patient-centred financial incentive delivery strategy to improve antiretroviral treatment adherence in adolescents and young adults (AYA) living with HIV in Kisumu, Kenya, we conducted a mixed methods study exploring preferences. METHODS: A discrete choice experiment (DCE) and focus group discussion (FGD) were conducted simultaneously to identify preferences for five incentive delivery strategy features: value, eligibility, recipient, format and disbursement frequency. We used consecutive sampling to recruit AYA (14-24 years) living with HIV attending three health facilities in Kisumu, Kenya. We calculated mean preferences, willingness to trade, latent class membership and predictors of latent class membership. The FGD explored preferred incentive features, and, after deductive and inductive coding, qualitative findings were triangulated with DCE results. RESULTS: Two hundred and seven AYA living with HIV (46% 14-17 years, 54% 18-24 years; 33% male sex, 89% viral load <50 copies/ml) were recruited to the study (28 October-16 November 2020). Two distinct preference phenotypes emerged from the DCE analysis (N = 199), 44.8% of the population fell into an "immediate reward" group, who wanted higher value cash or mobile money distributed at each clinic visit, and 55.2% fell into a "moderate spender" group, who were willing to accept lower value incentives in the form of cash or shopping vouchers, and accrued payments. The immediate reward group were willing to trade up to 200 Kenyan Shillings (KSH)-approximately 2 US dollars (USD)-of their 500 KSH (∼5 USD) incentive to get monthly as opposed to accrued yearly payments. The strongest predictor of latent class membership was age (RR 1.45; 95% CI: 1.08-1.95; p = 0.006). Qualitative data highlighted the unique needs of those attending boarding school and confirmed an overwhelming preference for cash incentives which appeared to provide the greatest versatility for use. CONCLUSIONS: Providing small financial incentives as cash was well-aligned with AYA preferences in this setting. AYA should additionally be offered a choice of other incentive delivery features (such as mobile money, recipient and disbursement frequency) to optimally align with the specific needs of their age group and life stage.