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Addressing Early Retention in Antenatal Care Among HIV-Positive Women Through a Simple Intervention in Kinshasa, DRC: The Elombe “Champion” Standard Operating Procedure

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Abstract

This cluster-randomized study aimed to assess the Elombe (“Champion”) standard operating procedure (SOP), implemented by providers and Mentor Mothers, on HIV-positive pregnant women’s retention between first and second antenatal visits. Sixteen facilities in Kinshasa were randomly assigned to intervention (SOP) or comparison (no SOP). Effect of the SOP was estimated using relative risk. Women in comparison facilities were more likely to miss second visits (RR 2.5, 95% CI 1.05–5.98) than women in intervention facilities (30.0%, n = 27 vs. 12.0%, n = 9, p < 0.002). Findings demonstrate that a simple intervention can reduce critical early loss to care in PMTCT programs providing universal, lifelong treatment.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded with generous support from Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. The authors thank all of the study participants for their participation and other clinic staff at study facilities for their support. The authors also recognize the support team at EGPAF in the US and the DRC, the data collectors, as well as Lynne Mofenson for her review of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, 1140 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC, 20036, USA

    Michelle M. Gill & Rhoderick Machekano

  2. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Michelle M. Gill & Marleen Temmerman

  3. Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation-DRC, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

    John Ditekemena, Aimé Loando & Nana Mbonze

  4. Education Development Center, Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo

    Jo Bakualufu

  5. Kinshasa School of Public Health, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

    Cady Nyombe

  6. Faculty of Health Sciences, Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Kenya

    Marleen Temmerman

  7. National AIDS Control Programme, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

    Franck Fwamba

Authors
  1. Michelle M. Gill
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  2. John Ditekemena
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  3. Aimé Loando
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  4. Nana Mbonze
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  5. Jo Bakualufu
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  6. Rhoderick Machekano
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  7. Cady Nyombe
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  8. Marleen Temmerman
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  9. Franck Fwamba
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Correspondence to Michelle M. Gill.

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All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. A waiver of informed consent was approved by the Institutional Review Boards which reviewed this study.

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Gill, M.M., Ditekemena, J., Loando, A. et al. Addressing Early Retention in Antenatal Care Among HIV-Positive Women Through a Simple Intervention in Kinshasa, DRC: The Elombe “Champion” Standard Operating Procedure . AIDS Behav 22, 860–866 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-017-1770-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-017-1770-1

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