Evaluating the Intensity of Exposure to MTV Shuga, an Edutainment Program for HIV Prevention: Cross-Sectional Study in Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Background: MTV Shuga is an edutainment campaign designed to equip young people with knowledge, motivation, and informed choices to protect themselves from HIV infection. From 2019 to 2020, a total of 10 episodes of a new dramatic series, MTV Shuga "Down South 2" (DS2), were broadcast via television and the internet, alongside complementary media activities.

Objective: This study aims to investigate whether the intensity of DS2 exposure was linked with positive HIV prevention outcomes in a setting with high HIV prevalence and relatively low levels of HIV testing.

Young people's access to sexual and reproductive health prevention services in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic: an online questionnaire.

Introduction: The South African government responded swiftly to the first wave of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) with a nationwide lockdown. Initial restrictions from March-July 2020 required people to stay at home unless accessing essential, life-saving services. We sought to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns affected young people's access to sexual and reproductive health services in a high-prevalence HIV setting.

'It is guiding us to protect ourselves': a qualitative investigation into why young people engage with a mass-media HIV education campaign.

This study explores how and why young people engage with , a popular mass media campaign in South Africa, to understand what makes effective HIV edutainment. Young MTV Shuga viewers from the Eastern Cape, South Africa and their parents participated in remote individual interviews and focus groups in 2020. Qualitative data were transcribed and analysed using a thematic iterative approach.

Effects of a multimedia campaign on HIV self-testing and PrEP outcomes among young people in South Africa: a mixed-methods impact evaluation of 'MTV Shuga Down South'.

Introduction: Innovative HIV technologies can help to reduce HIV incidence, yet uptake of such tools is relatively low among young people. To create awareness and demand among adolescents and young adults, a new campaign of the pan-African MTV Shuga series ('Down South 2'; DS2), featured storylines and messages about HIV self-testing (HIVST) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) through television, radio and accompanying multimedia activities in 2019-2020.

Methods: We conducted a mixed-methods evaluation of the new MTV Shuga series among 15-24 years old in Eastern Cape, South Africa, in 2020.

Young Adults' Responses to an African and US-Based COVID-19 Edutainment Miniseries: Real-Time Qualitative Analysis of Online Social Media Engagement.

Background: In April 2020, as cases of the novel COVID-19 spread across the globe, MTV Staying Alive Foundation created the educational entertainment miniseries MTV Shuga: Alone Together. In 70 short episodes released daily on YouTube, Alone Together aimed to disseminate timely and accurate information to increase young people's knowledge, motivation, and actions to prevent COVID-19.

Objective: We sought to identify Alone Together viewer's perspectives on the global COVID-19 pandemic and national lockdowns by examining the words, conversations, experiences, and emotions expressed on social media in response to the Alone Together episodes.

Community health worker home visiting in deeply rural South Africa: 12-month outcomes.

Home visiting by community health workers (CHW) improves child outcomes in efficacy trials, there is however limited evidence of impact evaluating CHW programmes when operating outside of a research project. A CHW programme, previously demonstrated efficacious in a peri-urban township, was evaluated in a deeply rural context in a non-randomised comparative cohort study. Two non-contiguous, rural areas in the Eastern Cape of South Africa of about equal size and density were identified and 1469 mother-infant pairs were recruited over 33 months.

Community health workers impact on maternal and child health outcomes in rural South Africa - a non-randomized two-group comparison study.

Background: Home visits by paraprofessional community health workers (CHWs) has been shown to improve maternal and child health outcomes in research studies in many countries. Yet, when these are scaled or replicated, efficacy disappears. An effective CHW home visiting program in peri-urban Cape Town found maternal and child health benefits over the 5 years point but this study examines if these benefits occur in deeply rural communities.

Home visits by community health workers in rural South Africa have a limited, but important impact on maternal and child health in the first two years of life.

Background: More than 50% of Africa's population lives in rural areas, which have few professional health workers. South Africa has adopted task shifting health care to Community Health Workers (CHWs) to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, but little is known about CHWs' efficacy in rural areas.

Methods: In this longitudinal prospective cohort study, almost all mothers giving birth (N = 470) in the Zithulele Hospital catchment area of the OR Tambo District were recruited and repeatedly assessed for 2 years after birth with 84.