Lisa Dulli|Kathleen Ridgeway|Catherine Packer|Kate Murray|Tolulope Mumuni|Kate F Plourde|Mario Chen|Adesola Olumide|Oladosu Ojengbede|Donna R. McCarraher
A Social Media–Based Support Group for Youth Living With HIV in Nigeria (SMART Connections): Randomized Controlled Trial
Family Health International 360|Family Health International 360|Family Health International 360|Family Health International 360|University of Ibadan|Family Health International 360|Family Health International 360|University of Ibadan|University of Ibadan|Family Health International 360
background youth living hiv ylhiv enrolled hiv treatment experience higher loss followup suboptimal treatment adherence greater hivrelated mortality compared younger children adults despite poorer health outcomes interventions target youth specifically expanding access mobile phone technology low middleincome countries lmics particular increased interest using technology improve health outcomes mhealth interventions may present innovative opportunities improve adherence retention among ylhiv lmics objective study aimed test effectiveness structured support group intervention social media promote adherence retention treatment smart connections delivered social media platform hiv treatment retention among ylhiv aged 15 24 years secondary outcomes antiretroviral therapy art adherence hiv knowledge social support methods conducted parallel unblinded randomized controlled trial ylhiv enrolled hiv treatment less 12 months randomized 11 ratio receive smart connections intervention standard care alone control collected data baseline endline structured interviews medical record extraction also conducted indepth interviews subsets intervention group participants primary outcome retention hiv treatment conducted timetoevent analysis examining time retained treatment study enrollment date participant longer classified activeontreatment results total 349 ylhiv enrolled study randomly allocated intervention group n177 control group n172 primary analysis included data 324 participants endline probability retained treatment differ significantly 2 study arms study retention high endline 757 112163 intervention group participants 834 126161 control group participants active treatment hivrelated knowledge significantly better intervention group endline statistically significant differences found art adherence social support intervention group participants overwhelmingly reported intervention useful enjoyed taking part would recommend ylhiv conclusions findings improved hiv knowledge high acceptability encouraging despite lack measurable effect retention retention greater anticipated groups likely result external efforts began partway study qualitative data indicate smart connections intervention may contributed retention adherence social support ways captured quantitatively webbased delivery support group interventions permit people access information group members privately convenient without travel digital health interventions may help fill critical gaps services available ylhiv trial registration clinicaltrialsgov nct03516318 httpsclinicaltrialsgovct2shownct03516318