Planning and commitment prompts to encourage reporting of HIV self-test results: A cluster randomized pragmatic trial in Tshwane District, South Africa

Alison M Buttenheim, Laura Schmucker, Noora Marcus, Mothepane Phatsoane, Vanessa Msolomba, Naleni Rhagnath, Mohammed Majam, François Venter and Harsha Thirumurthy

PLOS Global Public Health, 2022, vol. 2, issue 10, 1-9

Abstract: Reporting of HIV self-test results to encourage linkage to HIV care for those who receive a positive test result is a common challenge faced by HIV self-testing programs. The impact of self-testing programs is diminished if individuals who obtain a self-test do not use the test or seek confirmatory testing and initiate HIV treatment following a positive result. We conducted a cluster randomized trial of two interventions designed to increase reporting of HIV self-test results: a “plan and commit” intervention that leveraged insights from behavioral economics, and an enhanced usual care version of the standard HIV self-test community distribution protocol that promoted the importance of reporting results. The trial was conducted at community distribution sites for HIV self-tests in Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, Gauteng Province, South Africa. The primary outcome was reporting of self-test results via a WhatsApp messaging system. We recruited 1,478 participants at 13 distribution sites over 24 days. In the plan and commit condition, 63/731 participants (8.7%) reported their test results via WhatsApp, compared to 59/747 participants (7.9%) in the enhanced usual care condition (n.s., p = 0.61). During the study period, 101/3,199 individuals (3.1%) who received a self-test under the standard protocol reported test results via WhatsApp, a significant difference across the three arms (p

Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pgph00:0001196

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0001196

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