Examining oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) literacy among participants in an HIV vaccine trial preparedness cohort study.

BACKGROUND: PrEP literacy is influenced by many factors including the types of information available and how it is interpreted. The level of PrEP literacy may influence acceptability and uptake. METHODS: We conducted 25 in-depth interviews in a HIV vaccine trial preparedness cohort study. We explored what participants knew about PrEP, sources of PrEP knowledge and how much they know about PrEP. We used the framework approach to generate themes for analysis guided by the Social Ecological Model and examined levels of PrEP literacy using the individual and interpersonal constructs of the SEM. RESULTS: We found that PrEP awareness is strongly influenced by external factors such as social media and how much participants know about HIV treatment and prevention in the local community. However, while participants highlighted the importance of the internet/social media as a source of information about PrEP they talked of low PrEP literacy in their communities. Participants indicated that their own knowledge came as a result of joining the HIV vaccine trial preparedness study. However, some expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the drug and worried about side effects. Participants commented that at the community level PrEP was associated with being sexually active, because it was used to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV. As a result, some participants commented that one could feel judged by the health workers for asking for PrEP at health facilities in the community. CONCLUSION: The information collected in this study provided an understanding of the different layers of influence around individuals that are important to address to improve PrEP acceptability and uptake. Our findings can inform strategies to address the barriers to PrEP uptake, particularly at structural and community levels. TRIAL REGISTRATION: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04066881.

Stepping Stones and Creating Futures: A group-based approach to addressing violence against women through working with men.

In low- and middle-income countries, group-based interventions to address intimate partner violence (IPV) working with men, whether or not they are violent themselves, are increasingly common. Stepping Stones and Creating Futures (SSCF) is one intervention demonstrating reductions in men's perpetration of IPV through working with men around gender inequalities and livelihoods. Using a case study of Thembani, a young man living in an urban informal settlement in South Africa who was a participant within a large randomized controlled trial evaluating SSCF, we discuss how his use of violence changed. This reduction occurred through recognition that his situation was not a personal failing, but similar to others, thus reducing the shame he felt, learning to control his anger, and starting to understand how others felt when he used his power over others. This case study provides some initial evidence about how group-based interventions working with men may start to transform men's practices.

Gender role conflict and sexual health and relationship practices amongst young men living in urban informal settlements in South Africa.

Qualitative research suggests that men's inability to achieve dominant forms of masculinity may be related to HIV-risk behaviours and intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. Using clustered cross-sectional data, we assessed how young men's gender role conflict was associated with HIV-risk behaviours in urban informal settlements in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Gender Role Conflict and Stress (GRC/S) was measured using a South African adaptation of the GRC/S scale comprising three sub-scales: subordination to women; restrictive emotionality; and success, power and competition. In random-effect models adjusting for socio-demographics, we tested the relationship with GRC/S sub-scales and sexual health behaviours (transactional sex, use of sex workers, ≥2 main partners and ≥2 casual/once off partners), and relationship practices (relationship satisfaction, relationship control, partnership type and perpetration of IPV). Overall, 449 young men (median age = 25, Q1, Q3 = 23-28) were included in the analysis. Higher GRC/S scores, denoting more GRC/S, were associated with increased relationship control and increased odds of having ≥2 casual or one-off partners and engaging in transactional sex. We found differences in associations between each sub-scale and sexual health and relationship practices, highlighting important implications for informing both theoretical understandings of masculinity and gender transformative efforts.

Couples, alcohol use and experience of intimate partner violence among young women in urban informal settlements in Durban, South Africa: A mixed methods study.

Alcohol is recognized as a driver of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration and experience, but relatively little research has focused on the role of couples' drinking patterns, nor pathways between alcohol and violence. We draw on data collected among young (18-30 year old) people living in informal settlements who self-selected to enroll in an intervention trial to reduce IPV in Durban, South Africa to understand these dynamics. Between September 2015 and September 2016 quantitative data were collected from women, who reported on their own experiences of IPV and alcohol use, as well as their partner's own alcohol use. To contextualise and interpret the quantitative results, we use qualitative data from women and men (who were not in relationships with one another) to understand potential pathways through which alcohol use may shape conflict in relationships. All forms of IPV (physical and/or sexual, emotional and economic) were more common among women where either, they alone had problematic drinking levels, their partner was frequently drunk but they did not have problematic alcohol use, or they had problematic alcohol use and their partner was drunk frequently. Qualitative data suggested women and men in relationships rarely drank together. Three potential ways in which alcohol use increased conflict and IPV: disinhibition, with women and men more likely to get into arguments and speak 'badly' to one another; the impact of men's drinking on relationships, including economic provision and providing emotional support; and, the close association between alcohol consumption and infidelity, with women's public drinking being particularly stigmatized and male partner's seeing this as a challenge to their authority and control. Interventions addressing the alcohol-IPV nexus need to also address male patriarchal control and alcohol's close association with infidelity and the impact on finances, as well as reducing alcohol use.

Challenges and opportunities in coproduction: reflections on working with young people to develop an intervention to prevent violence in informal settlements in South Africa.

Coproduction is widely recognised as essential to the development of effective and sustainable complex health interventions. Through involving potential end users in the design of interventions, coproduction provides a means of challenging power relations and ensuring the intervention being implemented accurately reflects lived experiences. Yet, how do we ensure that coproduction delivers on this promise? What methods or techniques can we use to challenge power relations and ensure interventions are both more effective and sustainable in the longer term? To answer these questions, we openly reflect on the coproduction process used as part of Siyaphambili Youth ('Youth Moving Forward'), a 3-year project to create an intervention to address the social contextual factors that create syndemics of health risks for young people living in informal settlements in KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. We identify four methods or techniques that may help improve the methodological practice of coproduction: (1) building trust through small group work with similar individuals, opportunities for distance from the research topic and mutual exchanges about lived experiences; (2) strengthening research capacity by involving end users in the interpretation of data and explaining research concepts in a way that is meaningful to them; (3) embracing conflicts that arise between researchers' perspectives and those of people with lived experiences; and (4) challenging research epistemologies through creating spaces for constant reflection by the research team. These methods are not a magic chalice of codeveloping complex health interventions, but rather an invitation for a wider conversation that moves beyond a set of principles to interrogate what works in coproduction practice. In order to move the conversation forward, we suggest that coproduction needs to be seen as its own complex intervention, with research teams as potential beneficiaries.

Adaptation and pre-test of a shortened Stepping Stones and Creating Futures intervention focused on HIV for young men in rural South Africa.

Men's engagement in HIV prevention and treatment is suboptimal, including in South Africa. We sought to address this through adapting an evidence-based intervention, Stepping Stones and Creating Futures (SSCF), to strengthen its HIV content and provide a more scalable (shorter) intervention in rural South Africa. We then conducted a mixed methods pre-test of the intervention among young men aged 18-35 years. To adapt SSCF, we reviewed the current evidence base and worked with male Peer Navigators to update the SSCF theory of change (ToC) and manual. The revised intervention was ~45 hours (9 sessions) as opposed to ~63 hours and included a greater focus on HIV prevention and treatment technologies. Overall, 64% (n = 60) of men approached agreed to participate in the intervention, uptake (attending one session) among those who agreed was n = 35(58%) and retention (attending 6 or more sessions) was n = 25(71%). Qualitative data emphasized the intervention was acceptable, with young men describing it as something they liked. The qualitative data also broadly supported the intervention ToC, including the normalization of HIV in men's lives, and the importance of health for men in achieving their life goals. However, it also highlighted the need to focus more on HIV-related stigma and fear, and the importance of HIV self-testing kits in encouraging testing. We revised the ToC and manual in light of this data. The adapted SSCF is acceptable and supports the ToC. Next steps is an evaluation to look at effectiveness of the intervention.

Stepping Stones and Creating Futures Intervention to Prevent Intimate Partner Violence Among Young People: Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

PURPOSE: Young people, not in formal employment or education, face exceedingly high levels of intimate partner violence (IPV). We evaluated whether Stepping Stones and Creating Futures, compared with a wait-list control, can reduce IPV and strengthen livelihoods. METHODS: A cluster randomized controlled trial with 34 clusters in urban informal settlements in eThekwini Municipality, South Africa. Participant inclusion criteria were aged 18-30 years, resident in the informal settlement, and not working or in education. A total of 676 women and 646 men were recruited from September 2015 to September 2016. At recruitment, participants were not blinded to study arm. Endline data were collected from March to October 2018 (24 months postenrollment). Analyses were by intention-to-treat and separate for men and women. No clusters withdrew; endline retention was 74.9% (n = 505) men and 80.6% (n = 545) women. RESULTS: At endline in the intervention arm, men's self-reported past year IPV perpetration was lower (physical IPV [adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: .71, 95% confidence interval [CI]: .51-.97], severe IPV [aOR: .70, 95% CI: .52-.94], and sexual IPV [aOR: .74, 95% CI: .54-1.03]). There was no difference in men's controlling behaviors (ß = .06, 95% CI: -.51 to .63) or past month earnings (ß = .21, 95% CI: -.42 to .83). For women, earnings were significantly higher in the intervention arm (ß = .97, 95% CI: .43-1.51), but there were no differences for past year IPV experience (physical IPV [aOR: .92, 95% CI: .62-1.37]; sexual IPV [aOR: .90, 95% CI: .64-1.28], severe IPV [aOR: .93, 95% CI: .66-1.31]) or controlling behaviors (ß = -.01, 95% CI: -.88 to .86). CONCLUSION: Stepping Stones and Creating Futures is effective in reducing men's self-reported perpetration of IPV and strengthening women's livelihoods, but not women's experiences of IPV. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT03022370. Registered January 13, 2017.