Effects of enhanced STI partner notification counselling and provider-assisted partner services on partner referral and the incidence of STI diagnosis in Cape Town, South Africa: randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: We investigated the effects of an enhanced partner notification (PN) counselling intervention with the offer of provider-assisted referral among people diagnosed with STI in a Cape Town public clinic. METHODS: Participants were adults diagnosed with STI at a community clinic. After the standard STI consultation, participants were randomly allocated in a 1:1:1 ratio to (1) 'HE': 20 min health education; (2) 'RR': 45 min risk reduction skills counselling; or (3) 'ePN': 45 min enhanced partner notification communication skills counselling and the offer of provider-assisted referral. The primary outcome was the incidence of repeat STI diagnoses during the 12 months after recruitment, and the secondary outcome was participants' reports 2 weeks after diagnosis of notifying recent partners. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) were used to compare the incidence rates between arms using a Poisson regression model. RESULTS: The sample included 1050 participants, 350 per group, diagnosed with STI between June 2014 and August 2017. We reviewed 1048 (99%) participant records, and identified 136 repeat STI diagnoses in the ePN arm, 138 in the RR arm and 141 in the HE arm. There was no difference in the annual incidence of STI diagnosis between the ePN and HE arms (IRR: 1.0; 95% CI 0.7 to 1.3), or between the RR and HE arms (IRR: 0.9; 95% CI 0.7 to 1.2). There was a greater chance of a partner being notified in the ePN condition compared with the HE condition, 64.3% compared with 53.8%, but no difference between the RR and HE arms. CONCLUSIONS: PN counselling and education with provider-assisted services has the potential to change the behaviour of people diagnosed with STIs, increasing the number of partners they notify by more than 10%. However, these changes in behaviour did not lead to a reduction of repeat STI diagnoses. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: PACTR201606001682364.

Brief Enhanced Partner Notification and Risk Reduction Counseling to Prevent Sexually Transmitted Infections, Cape Town, South Africa.

BACKGROUND: Evidence-based interventions are needed to stem sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Clinic-delivered counseling remains an important avenue for effective STI prevention. METHODS: A 3-arm randomized clinical trial compared (a) STI health education control condition, (b) risk reduction counseling, and (c) enhanced partner notification counseling. Men and women (n = 1050) were recruited from an STI clinic in Cape Town, South Africa. After baseline assessments, participants were randomly allocated to receive 1 of the 3 single-session counseling interventions and were followed up for 9 months of behavioral assessments and 12 months of electronic medical records abstraction for STI clinic services. RESULTS: Sexual risk reduction counseling reported greater condom use than did the other 2 conditions during the 3 and 6 months follow-ups. In addition, women receiving risk reduction counseling were significantly less likely to have returned for STI clinic services but did not differ in the number of STI clinic visits over the year. CONCLUSIONS: Brief single-session STI prevention counseling demonstrates significant targeted outcomes. The findings suggest that counseling approaches to both increase condom use and enhance partner notification may offer more robust and sustained outcomes and should be tested in future research.

Perceived barriers to partner notification among sexually transmitted infection clinic patients, Cape Town, South Africa.

Background: Public health approaches to sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention in resource-limited countries rely on patients to self-notify sex partners of their STI. However, a majority of partners go uninformed and remain untreated and infectious. Methods: Anonymous surveys collected from 776 men and women receiving STI clinic services in Cape Town, South Africa. Results: Half of patients surveyed intended to inform their partners, while half did not intend to notify partners. Women were more likely than men to intend to notify their partners. Patients who completed formal education were also more likely to indicate intentions to notify partners. There were no associations between numbers of partners patients had or partner types with intentions to notify partners. Among both men and women, concerns about adverse partner reactions were associated with intentions not to notify partners. Multivariable analyses stratified by gender and controlling for confounds showed that intentions to notify partners were significantly related to men's concerns that their partner could react violently against them and women's concerns that their partner may leave them and refuse to see them again. Conclusions: Interventions that assist patients to develop strategies to safely inform their partners are needed to increase patient-initiated partner notification.

Advancing Partner Notification Through Electronic Communication Technology: A Review of Acceptability and Utilization Research.

A cornerstone of sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention is the identification, tracing, and notification of sex partners of index patients. Although partner notification reduces disease burden and prevents new infections as well as reinfections, studies show that only a limited number of partners are ever notified. Electronic communication technologies, namely, the Internet, text messaging, and phone calls (i.e., e-notification), have the potential to expand partner services. We conducted a systematic review of studies that have investigated the acceptability and utility of e-notification. We identified 23 studies that met the following criteria: (a) 9 studies presented data on the acceptability of technology-based communications for contacting sex partner(s), and (b) 14 studies reported on the utilization of communication technologies for partner notification. Studies found high levels of interest in and acceptability of e-notification; however, there was little evidence for actual use of e-notification. Taken together, results suggest that electronic communications could have their greatest impact in notifying less committed partners who would otherwise be uninformed of their STI exposure. In addition, all studies to date have been conducted in resource-rich countries, although the low cost of e-notification may have its greatest impact in resource-constrained settings. Research is needed to determine the best practices for exploiting the opportunities afforded by electronic communications for expanding STI partner services.

Improving the counselling skills of lay counsellors in antiretroviral adherence settings: a cluster randomised controlled trial in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Little research has investigated interventions to improve the delivery of counselling in health care settings. We determined the impact of training and supervision delivered as part of the Options: Western Cape project on lay antiretroviral adherence counsellors' practice. Four NGOs employing 39 adherence counsellors in the Western Cape were randomly allocated to receive 53 h of training and supervision in Options for Health, an intervention based on the approach of Motivational Interviewing. Five NGOs employing 52 adherence counsellors were randomly allocated to the standard care control condition. Counselling observations were analysed for 23 intervention and 32 control counsellors. Intervention counsellors' practice was more consistent with a client-centred approach than control counsellors', and significantly more intervention counsellors engaged in problem-solving barriers to adherence (91 vs. 41 %). The Options: Western Cape training and supervision package enabled lay counsellors to deliver counselling for behaviour change in a manner consistent with evidence-based approaches.

Predictors of poor adherence among people on antiretroviral treatment in Cape Town, South Africa: a case-control study.

A case-control study was conducted to describe the frequency with which structural- and individual-level barriers to adherence are experienced by people receiving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and to determine predictors of non-adherence. Three hundred adherent and 300 non-adherent patients from 6 clinics in Cape Town completed the LifeWindows Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills ART Adherence Questionnaire, the Substance Abuse and Mental Illness Symptoms Screener and the Structural Barriers to Clinic Attendance (SBCA) and Medication-taking (SBMT) scales. Overall, information-related barriers were reported most frequently followed by motivation and behaviour skill defects. Structural barriers were reported least frequently. Logistic regression analyses revealed that gender, behaviour skill deficit scores, SBCA scores and SBMT scores predicted non-adherence. Despite the experience of structural barriers being reported least frequently, structural barriers to medication-taking had the greatest impact on adherence (OR: 2.32, 95% CI: 1.73 to 3.12), followed by structural barriers to clinic attendance (OR: 2.06, 95% CI: 1.58 to 2.69) and behaviour skill deficits (OR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.05 to 1.71). Our data indicate the need for policy directed at the creation of a health-enabling environment that would enhance the likelihood of adherence among antiretroviral therapy users. Specifically, patient empowerment strategies aimed at increasing treatment literacy and management skills should be strengthened. Attempts to reduce structural barriers to antiretroviral treatment adherence should be expanded to include increased access to mental health care services and nutrition support.

Antiretroviral adherence interventions in Southern Africa: implications for using HIV treatments for prevention.

There is concern that the expansion of ART (antiretroviral treatment) programmes to incorporate the use of treatment as prevention (TasP) may be associated with low levels of adherence and retention in care, resulting in the increased spread of drug-resistant HIV. We review research published over the past year that reports on interventions to improve adherence and retention in care in Southern Africa, and discuss these in terms of their potential to support the expansion of ART programmes for TasP. We found eight articles published since January 2012, seven of which were from South Africa. The papers describe innovative models for ART care and adherence support, some of which have the potential to facilitate the ongoing scale- up of treatment programmes for increased coverage and TasP. The extent to which interventions from South Africa can be effectively implemented in other, lower-resource Southern African countries is unclear.

Antenatal depression case finding by community health workers in South Africa: feasibility of a mobile phone application.

Randomized controlled trials conducted in resource-limited settings have shown that once women with depressed mood are evaluated by specialists and referred for treatment, lay health workers can be trained to effectively administer psychological treatments. We sought to determine the extent to which community health workers could also be trained to conduct case finding using short and ultrashort screening instruments programmed into mobile phones. Pregnant, Xhosa-speaking women were recruited independently in two cross-sectional studies (N = 1,144 and N = 361) conducted in Khayelitsha, South Africa and assessed for antenatal depression. In the smaller study, community health workers with no training in human subject research were trained to administer the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) during the routine course of their community-based outreach. We compared the operating characteristics of four short and ultrashort versions of the EPDS with the criterion standard of probable depression, defined as an EPDS-10 ≥ 13. The prevalence of probable depression (475/1144 [42 %] and 165/361 [46 %]) was consistent across both samples. The 2-item subscale demonstrated poor internal consistency (Cronbach's α ranged from 0.55 to 0.58). All four subscales demonstrated excellent discrimination, with area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) values ranging from 0.91 to 0.99. Maximal discrimination was observed for the 7-item depressive symptoms subscale: at the conventional screening threshold of ≥10, it had 0.97 sensitivity and 0.76 specificity for detecting probable antenatal depression. The comparability of the findings across the two studies suggests that it is feasible to use community health workers to conduct case finding for antenatal depression.

From research to practice: lay adherence counsellors' fidelity to an evidence-based intervention for promoting adherence to antiretroviral treatment in the Western cape, South Africa.

In the Western Cape, lay counsellors are tasked with supporting antiretroviral (ARV) adherence in public healthcare clinics. Thirty-nine counsellors in 21 Cape Town clinics were trained in Options for Health (Options), an evidence-based intervention based on motivational interviewing (MI). We evaluated counsellors' ability to deliver Options for addressing poor adherence following 5 days training. Audio-recordings of counselling sessions collected following training were transcribed and translated into English. Thirty-five transcripts of sessions conducted by 35 counsellors were analysed for fidelity to the Options protocol, and using the Motivational Interviewing Treatment and Integrity (MITI) code. Counsellors struggled with some of the strategies associated with MI, such as assessing readiness-to-change and facilitating change talk. Overall, counsellors failed to achieve proficiency in the approach of MI according to the MITI. Counsellors were able to negotiate realistic plans for addressing patients' barriers to adherence. Further efforts aimed at strengthening the ARV adherence counselling programme are needed.

The feasibility of implementing a sexual risk reduction intervention in routine clinical practice at an ARV clinic in Cape Town: a case study.

This case study with one lay adherence counsellor assessed the implementation of Options for Health, a sexual risk-reduction intervention based on Motivational Interviewing (MI), in an antiretroviral clinic in Cape Town, South Africa. In most cases Options was not delivered with fidelity and less than one-third of intended recipients received it; the counsellor often forgot to do Options, was unsure how to deal with particular cases and felt that there was not always time to do Options. Options was not implemented in a way that was consistent with MI. Revisions to the implementation plan and training programme are required.

Changes in risk behavior among HIV-positive patients during their first year of antiretroviral therapy in Cape Town South Africa.

We explore changes in sexual risk behaviour over the first year of antiretroviral therapy (ART) among a cohort of patients in Cape Town South Africa initiating treatment in five public facilities in 2006 and again 1 year later (Time 1 and Time 2). Contemporaneous measures of unprotected sex were also obtained from 2 cross-sectional samples of HIV-positive patients waiting to start ART attending the same facilities. Unprotected sex at last sex among patients on ART decreased significantly from a baseline of 44.7-23.2% one year later, regardless of partner status. After controlling for confounding factors, the observed decrease in unprotected sex among the ART cohort was highly significant in relation to the 2 cross-sectional samples of patients at Time 1 and Time 2 waiting to initiate ART. Findings suggest it is critical to start positive prevention to decrease risky sexual behavior prior to the start of ART within this setting.

Rapid assessment of HIV risk behavior in drug using sex workers in three cities in South Africa.

A rapid assessment was undertaken with drug using commercial sex workers (CSWs) to investigate practices putting them at risk for contracting HIV. It included key informant (KI) (N = 67) and focus group (N = 10) interviews in locations with a high prevalence of drug use in Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria, South Africa. HIV testing of KIs was conducted. Cocaine, Ecstasy, heroin and methaqualone are used by CSWs prior to, during and after sex. Drugs enhance the sexual experience and prolong sex sessions. Interviews revealed inconsistent condom use among CSWs together with other risky sexual practices such as needle sharing. Among CSWs who agreed to HIV testing, 34% tested positive. Barriers to accessing drug treatment and HIV treatment and preventive services were identified. Interventions recognizing the role of drug abuse in HIV transmission should be prioritized, and issues of access to services, stigma and power relations must be considered.

HIV-risk behavior among injecting or non-injecting drug users in Cape Town, Pretoria, and Durban, South Africa.

The rapid assessment aimed to describe drug use and sexual practices that place injection and noninjection drug users (IDUs/NIDUs) at risk for HIV in South Africa. The sample comprised 85 key-informant (KI) and focus-group (FG) interviewees in or serving locations with high levels of drug use in Cape Town, Durban, and Pretoria. HIV testing of drug-using KIs was conducted using the SmartCheck Rapid HIV-1 Antibody Test. The findings indicated that commonly used drugs had differing effects on sexual and drug-use practices. Risky injecting behaviors among IDUs were common, and most interviewees engaged in sex when on drugs, some without condoms. These behaviors were also influenced by trust in intimate relationships. Injection drug users seemed more knowledgeable about HIV transmission than NIDUs, and 20% of IDUs who agreed to HIV screening tested positive. Views about drug- and HIV-intervention services, accessibility, and their efficacy were mixed. The findings suggest greater synergy is needed between drug- and HIV-intervention sectors and that consideration should be given to making various risk-reduction strategies more accessible. The study's limitations have been noted.

Rapid assessment of drug-related HIV risk among men who have sex with men in three South African cities.

The current assessment was undertaken to examine the link between drug use and sexual risk behavior among men who have sex with men (MSM) in locations known to have high prevalence rates of drug use and sexual risk behavior in Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria, South Africa. Street intercepts and purposive snowball sampling were used to recruit drug-using MSM. A rapid assessment was undertaken which included observation, mapping, key informant interviews and focus group interviews with MSM. Drug using key informants were tested for HIV. The use of drugs like crack cocaine, cannabis and methamphetamine to specifically facilitate sexual encounters was evident. Drugs led to inconsistent condom use and other high-risk sexual activities despite HIV risk knowledge being high. Many injecting drug-using MSM shared needles and reused equipment. Among MSM who agreed to HIV testing, one-third tested positive. Views about drug and HIV treatment and preventive services and their efficacy were mixed. Various barriers to accessing services were highlighted including homosexual stigmatization and availability of drugs in treatment facilities. Recommendations include addressing the gap between HIV-risk knowledge and practice, extending VCT services for MSM, increasing the visibility of drug abuse services within communities, addressing concerns about drug availability in treatment centers as well as reintegration issues and the need for after-care services, reducing stigmatization in drug and HIV services for MSM and finally, strengthening the link between drug treatment services and HIV prevention by integrating HIV/drug-related risks into HIV prevention efforts and HIV risks into drug use prevention efforts.

Sex, drugs, and HIV: rapid assessment of HIV risk behaviors among street-based drug using sex workers in Durban, South Africa.

South Africa is experiencing significant changes in patterns of illicit drug use, including increasing injection and non-injection drug use, and the use of drugs by persons engaged in sex work, both of which could further expand the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In 2005, a rapid ethnographic assessment was conducted in Durban, South Africa, to learn more about patterns of drug use and HIV risk behaviors among drug-using, street-based sex workers. Field teams recruited 52 current injection and non-injection drug users for key informant interviews and focus groups, and they conducted mapping and observation in identified high-risk neighborhoods. Key informants were offered free, voluntary counseling and HIV rapid testing. The results of the assessment indicate that in this population, drugs play an organizing role in patterns of daily activities, with sex work closely linked to the buying, selling, and using of drugs. Participants reported using multiple drugs including crack cocaine, heroin, Ecstasy and Mandrax, and their choices were based on their expectations about the functional role and behavioral and pharmacological properties of the drugs. The organization of sex work and patterns of drug use differ by gender, with males exercising more control over daily routines and drug and sexual transactions than females. Activities of female sex workers are subject to considerable control by individual pimps, many of whom also function as landlords and drug dealers. A strong hold over the overlapping economies of drugs and sex work by a few individuals extends to control of the physical and social settings in which sex is exchanged and drugs are sold and used as well as the terms under which sex work is carried out. The potential for accelerated HIV spread is considerable given the evidence of overlapping drug-using and sexual risk behaviors and the mixing patterns across drug and sexual risk networks.

Community-based prenatal screening for postpartum depression in a South African township.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the feasibility of using community health workers to administer short or ultra-short screening instruments during routine community-based prenatal outreach for detecting probable depression at 12 weeks postpartum. METHODS: During pregnancy and at 12 weeks postpartum, the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS-10) was administered to 249 Xhosa-speaking black African women living in Khayelitsha, South Africa. We compared the operating characteristics of the prenatal EPDS-10, as well as 4 short and ultra-short subscales, with the criterion standard of probable postpartum depression. RESULTS: Seventy-nine (31.7%) women were assessed as having probable postpartum depression. A prenatal EPDS-10 score of 13 or higher had 0.67 sensitivity and 0.67 specificity for detecting probable postpartum depression. Briefer subscales performed similarly. CONCLUSION: Community health workers successfully conducted community-based screening for depression in a resource-limited setting using short or ultra-short screening instruments. However, overall feasibility was limited because prenatal screening failed to accurately predict probable depression during the postpartum period.

Lay counselors' ability to deliver counseling for behavior change.

OBJECTIVE: Options for Health is an evidence-based sexual risk reduction intervention based on motivational interviewing (MI). Thirty-nine antiretroviral adherence lay counselors were trained to deliver Options for Health to help their patients to optimize their antiretroviral treatment adherence. An evaluation of counselors' ability to deliver the intervention after 35 hr of training revealed that counselors struggled with elements of the 8-step Options protocol and failed to achieve proficiency in MI. The current study aimed to determine the impact of refresher training and supervision on counselors' proficiency in the intervention. METHOD: Audio-recordings of counseling sessions were collected for 22 of 39 counselors after 18 hr of refresher training and supervision had been delivered over a 12-month period. Recordings were transcribed, translated, and analyzed for fidelity to the Options protocol and the MI approach. Analysis was conducted using the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity Tool and an instrument developed by the researchers. Results were compared to findings from an evaluation of counselors' performance immediately following the initial 35-hr training. RESULTS: Counselors improved their delivery of some intervention steps, but not others; their use of micro-counseling skills and therapeutic approach improved to such an extent that they closely approximated the MI approach. CONCLUSIONS: This study contributes evidence for the positive impact of ongoing training and supervision on lay health worker practice. Although counselors did not achieve complete proficiency in the Options protocol, refresher training and supervision improved counselors' basic counseling communication skills and therapeutic approach, enabling them to deliver better quality counseling for behavior change.

Food insecurity and its association with co-occurring postnatal depression, hazardous drinking, and suicidality among women in peri-urban South Africa.

BACKGROUND: Although the public health impacts of food insecurity and depression on both maternal and child health are extensive, no studies have investigated the associations between food insecurity and postnatal depression or suicidality. METHODS: We interviewed 249 women three months after they had given birth and assessed food insecurity, postnatal depression symptom severity, suicide risk, and hazardous drinking. Multivariable Poisson regression models with robust standard errors were used to estimate the impact of food insecurity on psychosocial outcomes. RESULTS: Food insecurity, probable depression, and hazardous drinking were highly prevalent and co-occurring. More than half of the women (149 [59.8%]) were severely food insecure, 79 (31.7%) women met screening criteria for probable depression, and 39 (15.7%) women met screening criteria for hazardous drinking. Nineteen (7.6%) women had significant suicidality, of whom 7 (2.8%) were classified as high risk. Each additional point on the food insecurity scale was associated with increased risks of probable depression (adjusted risk ratio [ARR], 1.05; 95% CI, 1.02-1.07), hazardous drinking (ARR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.00-1.09), and suicidality (ARR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.02-1.23). Evaluated at the means of the covariates, these estimated associations were large in magnitude. LIMITATIONS: The study is limited by lack of data on formal DSM-IV diagnoses of major depressive disorder, potential sample selection bias, and inability to assess the causal impact of food insecurity. CONCLUSION: Food insecurity is strongly associated with postnatal depression, hazardous drinking, and suicidality. Programmes promoting food security for new may enhance overall psychological well-being in addition to improving nutritional status.

Rapid assessment of drug use and sexual HIV risk patterns among vulnerable drug-using populations in Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria, South Africa.

This exploratory study examines the links between drug use and high-risk sexual practices and HIV in vulnerable drug-using populations in South Africa, including commercial sex workers (CSWs), men who have sex with men (MSM), injecting drug users (IDUs) and non-injecting drug users who are not CSWs or MSM (NIDUs). A rapid assessment ethnographic study was undertaken using observation, mapping, key informant interviews and focus groups in known 'hotspots' for drug use and sexual risk in Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria. Key informant (KI) and focus group interviews involved drug users and service providers. Purposeful snowball sampling and street intercepts were used to recruit drug users. Outcome measures included drug-related sexual HIV risk behaviour, and risk behaviour related to injection drug use, as well as issues related to service use. HIV testing of drug-using KIs was conducted using the SmartCheck Rapid HIV-1 Antibody Test. Non-injection drug use (mainly cannabis, methaqualone, crack cocaine and crystal methamphetamine) and injection drug use (mainly heroin) was occurring in these cities. Drug users report selling sex for money to buy drugs, and CSWs used drugs before, during and after sex. Most (70%) of the drug-using KIs offered HIV testing accepted and 28% were positive, with rates highest among CSWs and MSM. IDUs reported engaging in needle sharing and needle disposal practices that put them and others at risk for contracting HIV. There was a widespread lack of awareness about where to access HIV treatment and preventive services, and numerous barriers to accessing appropriate HIV and drug-intervention services were reported. Multiple risk behaviours of vulnerable populations and lack of access to HIV prevention services could accelerate the diffusion of HIV. Targeted interventions could play an important role in limiting the spread of HIV in and through these under-reached and vulnerable populations.

A systematic review of the quality of information on the treatment of anxiety disorders on the internet.

A vast amount of information describing health interventions is available on the Internet. This paper describes the systematic retrieval and quality assessment of websites containing information on the treatment of anxiety disorders. Separate searches were conducted for information on generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder, and specific phobia. The Google, Yahoo, and MSN search engines yielded 540 results, 110 of which were eligible for inclusion. Sixty-seven unique websites were identified. The DISCERN scale was used to evaluate quality of content. The authors also compared the websites in terms of popularity, readability, and a range of technical criteria. Websites were generally of poor to moderate quality. Higher-quality scores were obtained for websites whose authors attributed their sources and provided a clear statement of the purpose of the website. The paper closes by considering limitations of the review and possible future research avenues.