Effect of a multicomponent, person-centred care intervention on client experience and HIV treatment outcomes in Zambia: a stepped-wedge, cluster-randomised trial.

Background: Recipients of health services value not only convenience but also respectful, kind, and helpful providers. To date, research to improve person-centred HIV treatment has focused on making services easier to access (eg, differentiated service delivery) rather than the interpersonal experience of care. We developed and evaluated a person-centred care (PCC) intervention targeting practices of health-care workers.

Assessing the Response Results of an mHealth-Based Patient Experience Survey Among People Receiving HIV Care in Lusaka, Zambia: Cohort Study.

Background: This pilot study evaluates the effectiveness of mobile talk-time incentives in maintaining participation in a longitudinal mobile health (mHealth) data collection program among people living with HIV in Lusaka, Zambia. While mHealth tools, such as mobile phone surveys, provide vital health feedback, optimal incentive strategies to ensure long-term engagement remain limited. This study explores how different incentive levels affect response rates in multiple survey rounds, providing insights into effective methods for encouraging ongoing participation, especially in the context of Zambia's prepaid mobile system and multi-SIM usage, a common practice in sub-Saharan Africa.

Estimating the potential value of MSM-focused evidence-based implementation interventions in three Ending the HIV Epidemic jurisdictions in the United States: a model-based analysis.

Introduction: Improving the delivery of existing evidence-based interventions to prevent and diagnose HIV is key to Ending the HIV Epidemic in the United States. Structural barriers in the access and delivery of related health services require municipal or state-level policy changes; however, suboptimal implementation can be addressed directly through interventions designed to improve the reach, effectiveness, adoption or maintenance of available interventions. Our objective was to estimate the cost-effectiveness and potential epidemiological impact of six real-world implementation interventions designed to address these barriers and increase the scale of delivery of interventions for HIV testing and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in three US metropolitan areas.

Implementation strategies to improve HIV care cascade outcomes in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review from 2014 to 2021.

Introduction: In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic and manage limited resources, optimized implementation strategies are needed to enhance the efficiency of the HIV response. Assessing strategy usage to date could identify research gaps and inform future implementation efforts. We conducted a systematic review to describe the features and distributions of published implementation strategies attempting to improve HIV treatment service delivery and outcomes.

Dissemination and implementation research coordination and training to improve cardiovascular health in people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa: the research coordinating center of the HLB-SIMPLe Alliance.

As global adoption of antiretroviral therapy extends the lifespan of People Living with HIV (PLHIV) through viral suppression, the risk of comorbid conditions such as hypertension has risen, creating a need for effective, scalable interventions to manage comorbidities in PLHIV. The Heart, Lung, and Blood Co-morbiditieS Implementation Models in People Living with HIV (HLB-SIMPLe) Alliance has been funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the Fogarty International Center (FIC) since September 2020. The Alliance was created to conduct late-stage implementation research to contextualize, implement, and evaluate evidence-based strategies to integrate the diagnosis, treatment, and control of cardiovascular diseases, particularly hypertension, in PLHIV in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Person-centred interventions to improve patient-provider relationships for HIV services in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.

Introduction: Person-centred care (PCC) has been recognized as a critical element in delivering quality and responsive health services. The patient-provider relationship, conceptualized at the core of PCC in multiple models, remains largely unexamined in HIV care. We conducted a systematic review to better understand the types of PCC interventions implemented to improve patient-provider interactions and how these interventions have improved HIV care continuum outcomes and person-reported outcomes (PROs) among people living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries.

Experiences and perceptions of conditional cash incentive provision and cessation among people with HIV for care engagement: A qualitative study.

Background: Consistent engagement in HIV treatment is needed for healthy outcomes, yet substantial loss-to-follow up persists, leading to increased morbidity, mortality and onward transmission risk. Although conditional cash transfers (CCTs) address structural barriers, recent findings suggest that incentive effects are time-limited, with cessation resulting in HIV care engagement deterioration. We explored incentive experiences, perceptions, and effects after cessation to investigate potential mechanisms of this observation.

Situating implementation science (IS) in res(IS)tance: a conceptual frame toward the integration of scholarship from the black radical tradition.

This manuscript undertakes a disciplinary self-critique of the field of implementation science, a field which attempts to bridge the gap between evidence-based interventions and their practical application. Despite the heightened emphasis on health equity and racial disparities, the field's current discourse is limited by key epistemic shortcomings. First, even though prevalence of implementation gaps between racialized groups in the United States necessitates a comprehensive understanding of the systems perpetuating these disparities, the field does not operate with a general explanation for disparities not as a failure of systems, but a system historically and structural designed to produce disparities.

Social and structural factors associated with interest in HIV preexposure prophylaxis among Black women in the United States.

In a nationwide sample of cisgender Black women in the US, we assessed the associations between social and structural factors and interest in using HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Among 315 respondents, 62.2% were interested in PrEP if it were provided for free.

Adaptive Strategies for Retention in Care among Persons Living with HIV.

Background: Optimizing retention in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment may require sequential behavioral interventions based on patients' response.

Methods: In a sequential multiple assignment randomized trial in Kenya, we randomly assigned adults initiating HIV treatment to standard of care (SOC), Short Message Service (SMS) messages, or conditional cash transfers (CCT). Those with retention lapse (missed a clinic visit by ≥14 days) were randomly assigned again to standard-of-care outreach (SOC-Outreach), SMS+CCT, or peer navigation.

Instrumental variables for implementation science: exploring context-dependent causal pathways between implementation strategies and evidence-based interventions.

Background: The impact of both implementation strategies (IS) and evidence-based interventions (EBI) can vary across contexts, and a better understanding of how and why this occurs presents fundamental but challenging questions that implementation science as a field will need to grapple with. We use causal epidemiologic methods to explore the mechanisms of why sharp distinctions between implementation strategies (IS) and efficacy of an evidence-based intervention (EBI) may fail to recognize that the effect of an EBI can be deeply intertwined and dependent on the context of the IS leading to its uptake.

Methods: We explore the use of instrumental variable (IV) analyses as a critical tool for implementation science methods to isolate three relevant quantities within the same intervention context when exposure to an implementation strategy is random: (1) the effect of an IS on implementation outcomes (e.

HIV epidemiology, prevention, treatment, and implementation strategies for public health.

The global HIV response has made tremendous progress but is entering a new phase with additional challenges. Scientific innovations have led to multiple safe, effective, and durable options for treatment and prevention, and long-acting formulations for 2-monthly and 6-monthly dosing are becoming available with even longer dosing intervals possible on the horizon. The scientific agenda for HIV cure and remission strategies is moving forward but faces uncertain thresholds for success and acceptability.

A youth-centred approach to improving engagement in HIV services: human-centred design methods and outcomes in a research trial in Kisumu County, Kenya.

Unlabelled: IntroductionInnovative interventions are needed to improve HIV outcomes among adolescents and young adults (AYAs) living with HIV. Engaging AYAs in intervention development could increase effectiveness and youth acceptance, yet research is limited. We applied human-centred design (HCD) to refine adherence-support interventions pretrial and assessed HCD workshop acceptability.

Developing ethical standards for dissemination and implementation research: a roadmap for consensus and guidance.

Background: As a relatively new field, dissemination and implementation research has not been included as a separate study design category for ethical consideration compared with clinical and social/behavioral research, yet it should be based on unique study designs, targets of intervention, and corresponding risks.

Main Text: Research teams conducting dissemination and implementation research have raised important questions related to the responsible conduct of research such as collecting informed consent, site monitoring, identifying and mitigating risks of unintended consequences, and adverse event ascertainment and reporting in dissemination and implementation research. In this commentary, we highlight the need for guidance and consensus standards on ethical issues in dissemination and implementation research and describe some ethical domains and relevant questions in dissemination and implementation research.

Demographic differences in the cascade of care for unhealthy alcohol use: A cross-sectional analysis of data from the 2015-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Background: The screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) model is recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to improve recognition of and intervention for unhealthy alcohol use.

Leveraging CD4 Cell Count at Entry Into Care to Monitor Success of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Prevention, Treatment, and Public Health Programming in the Greater St Louis Area Between 2017 and 2020.

CD4 cell count at entry into human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care is a useful indicator of success of multiple steps in HIV public health programming. We demonstrate that CD4 cell count at care initiation was stable in St Louis between 2017 and 2019 but declined in 2020. Missouri efforts in the Ending the HIV Epidemic plan should focus on rapidly identifying individuals with undiagnosed HIV infection.

Provider perspectives on patient-centredness: participatory formative research and rapid analysis methods to inform the design and implementation of a facility-based HIV care improvement intervention in Zambia.

Introduction: Implementation of patient-centred care (PCC) practices in HIV treatment depends on healthcare workers' (HCWs) perceptions of the acceptability, appropriateness and feasibility of such practices (e.g. use of intentional, metric-driven activities to improve patient experiences).

Patterns of person-centred communications in public HIV clinics: a latent class analysis using the Roter interaction analysis system.

Introduction: Poor client-provider communication is a critical barrier to long-term retention in care among people living with HIV. However, standardized assessments of this key metric are limited in Africa. We used the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS) to quantitatively characterize patterns of person-centred communication (PCC) behaviours in Zambia.

Correction: Evaluation of kidney function among people living with HIV initiating antiretroviral therapy in Zambia.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.