The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a social media campaign and community engagement activities to promote pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use among young women and to influence community norms around PrEP in South Africa. To do this, the investigative team will analyze PrEP initiation and retention data from the study's implementing partner, TB HIV Care, a non-profit organization providing PrEP to marginalized young women in South Africa. The effect of the social media campaign and community engagement will be tested using a short duration cluster randomized trial (CRT).
The cluster randomized trial (CRT) will not engage in PrEP provision to individuals, but instead employs geographical regions to serve as units of randomization where social media content and community engagement will be targeted. TB HIV Care employs a large team to provide routine service delivery while the CRT tests strategies including a social media campaign and community engagement that may amplify PrEP uptake and persistence among the community, leveraging the programme infrastructure to actually provide services as it is already doing. Embedding strategies within the programme ensures that the existing results come from real world contexts and focuses on implementation of support strategies rather than clinical care provision. The CRT will be implemented across 10 districts, with 5 districts serving as control sites and 5 as intervention sites.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
601
PrEP social influence campaign, which will use online approaches to promote PrEP within communities in addition to the standard of care activities. Messaging crafted with community input will be geographically targeted to women, parents/mentors, and male partners on Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp, all with the intention to promote PrEP for women at high risk of HIV infection and change community norms and influence around PrEP. A combination of static imagery and brief videos will be used to engage these groups via social media platforms. A Facebook page will be created and maintained that can be accessed by anyone anywhere, but will only be advertised/promoted in the intervention districts.
Within venues served by the FSW and AGYW programs, the team will identify and train 1 venue-based PrEP champion per venue who will receive supplies (e.g. a hat, pin and posters, flyers, IEC material) to wear to promote PrEP, facilitate linkage between women interested in PrEP and the TB HIV Care PrEP programme. PrEP champions will be either peers with experience taking PrEP, venue managers or local influencers (e.g. women running shops next to the mobile serving AGYW) that have repeated contact with the women the programme is intended to serve. The final selection of PrEP champions will be made in consultation with the Community Advisory Groups, venues and by the programme who works closely with each of the sites.
A PrEP community mobilization team (2 peers, including one woman and one man) will be recruited within each ward to promote PrEP. The team will present information about PrEP and the PrEP programme at the ward councilors meeting, at Learning Support Agent meetings with parents/guardians, at local events/fairs, community meetings and through engaging men, women and parents across the community through informal conversations. Teams will be wearing branded material and will focus on presenting factual information and decreasing PrEP stigma. Each team will focus on promoting PrEP within their own ward over the 6-month period.
Full-time peer educators employed by the TB HIV Care programme to engage women, layer PrEP promotion across prevention programs, and implement "refer a friend" strategies, information, education and communication (IEC) materials, service user testimonials, risk reduction posters to increase young women's perception of risk, working after hours/weekends to reach young women, working with school governing bodies, and door-to-door outreach.
TB HIV Care
Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Number of Service-users Who Initiate PrEP Uptake Within the TB HIV Care Programme
De-identified aggregate counts of female sex workers (FSW) and adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) service-users within the TB HIV Care programme database who initiate PrEP during the intervention period. Number of service users in the program database who initiated prep are reported.
Time frame: 12 months
Proportion of PrEP Persistence at 1-month Within the TB HIV Care Programme
Proportion of FSW/AGYW clients within the TB HIV Care programme database who return for 1-month follow-up visit. For each district, the proportion of clients who returned for this visit was calculated. The mean proportion across the standard of care and intervention districts is reported.
Time frame: Month 1
Proportion of PrEP Persistence at 4 Months Within the TB HIV Care Programme
Proportion of FSW/AGYW clients within the TB HIV Care programme database who return for 4-month follow-up visit. For each district, the proportion of clients who returned for this visit was calculated. The mean proportion across the standard of care and intervention districts is reported.
Time frame: Month 4
Number of Participants Who Found Intervention Acceptable
Acceptability: Respondents who reported intervention acceptability captured in post-trial cross-sectional survey
Time frame: Month 12
Adoption as Assessed by Number of Facebook Page Visits by Unique Users
Service user uptake and engagement with campaign measured via the number of Facebook page visits. Facebook users who visited the campaign content is reported.
Time frame: Month 12
Total Cost
Total cost associated with planning, designing, and implementing the social influence campaign will be assessed via review of detailed study budgets. The reported value represents a single point estimate (in USD) of the total cost incurred, based on actual budget expenditures. Because this is a cumulative total cost, non-sampled financial figure, measures of dispersion/precision are not applicable. This outcome measure is based on a review of detailed study budgets related to the planning, design, and implementation of the social influence campaign.The unit analyzed is the campaign itself and analyzed as the overall cost of the Enhanced social media campaign/PrEP champions/Community mobilization arm per protocol.
Time frame: Month 12
Penetration as Assessed by Number of Participants Who Report Engagement With Campaign Among Social Support Networks
Extent to which the social influence campaign reached FSW/AGYW and their families/peers/partners measured via descriptive statistics from post-trial survey questions on campaign exposure and perceptions of the campaign among FSW/AGYW and their social support networks.
Time frame: Month 12
Fidelity as Assessed by Percentage of On-Schedule Posts
Extent to which the social influence campaign was carried out according to plan measured via social media metrics to determine whether static and video content were shared across platforms as planned. Fidelity is assessed by tracking adherence to the planned posting schedule. Participants were not included in assessing fidelity of on-schedule posts, rather posts made across social media platforms were analyzed. Adherence was assessed by documenting whether all scheduled posts were successfully and timely published as planned during the campaign period.
Time frame: Month 12
Adoption as Assessed by Number of Views by Unique Users
Service user uptake and engagement with campaign as assessed by number of times each ad was viewed overall and number of video views.
Time frame: 12 months
Adoption as Assessed by Number of Ad Clicks
Service user uptake and engagement with campaign measured via the number of times someone clicked on each ad
Time frame: 12 months
Fidelity as Assessed by Programme Logs Completed
Extent to which the social influence campaign was carried out according to plan was measured via trainings, logs of communication with PrEP champions, and community mobilization logs/quality assessments.
Time frame: 12 months
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