Long Term Outcomes of Therapy in Women Initiated on Lifelong ART Because of Pregnancy in DR Congo

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

5053 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2016-11-30

Study Completion Date

2022-06-30

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

Despite the rapid adoption of the World Health Organization's 2013 guidelines, many children continue to be infected with HIV perinatally because of sub-optimal adherence to the continuum of HIV care in maternal and child health clinics (MCH). To achieve the UNAIDS goal eliminating mother-to-child HIV transmission, multiple, adaptive interventions will need to be implemented to improve adherence to the HIV continuum. The aim of this open label, parallel groups, randomized controlled trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) interventions implemented at facility and health district level to improve retention in care and virological suppression through 24 months postpartum among pregnant and breastfeeding women receiving ART in MCH clinics in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Prior to randomization, the current monitoring and evaluation system will be strengthen to enable collection of high quality individual patient-level data necessary for the timely production of indicators and monitoring of program outcomes to inform CQI interventions. Following randomization, in health districts randomized to CQI, quality improvement (QI) teams will be established at the district level and at MCH clinics level. For 18 months, QI teams will be brought together quarterly to identified key bottlenecks in the care delivery system using data from the monitoring system, develop an action plan to address those bottlenecks, and implement the action plan at the level of their district or clinics. If proven to be effective, CQI as designed here, could be scaled up rapidly in DRC and other resource-limited settings to accelerate progress towards the goal of an AIDS free generation.

Related Clinical Trials

Explore similar clinical trials based on study characteristics and research focus.

Prenatal and Postnatal Studies of Interventions for Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission

NCT00028145

HIV Infections Pregnancy Complications, Infectious

COMPLETED

Strategies to Optimize Antiretroviral Therapy Services for Maternal & Child Health: the MCH-ART Study

NCT01933477

HIV

COMPLETED NA

UNCPM 22314 - Pregnancy, Infant and Maternal Health Outcomes Study

NCT06158126

Pre-exposure Prophylaxis HIV Prevention Pregnancy Related

RECRUITING PHASE4

Preventing Unplanned Pregnancies in HIV Infected Zambian Couples

NCT00067522

Pregnancy HIV Infections

UNKNOWN NA

A Study to Collect Information About HIV-Positive Pregnant Women and Their Babies

NCT00000910

HIV Infections Pregnancy

COMPLETED

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

The US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) goal of an AIDS-free generation, re-emphasized in PEPFAR 3.0, will not be achieved without substantial improvement in the adherence to the HIV care continuum among women in maternal and child health clinics (MCH) in resource-limited settings. In a recent meta-analysis of loss to follow-up (LTFU) across the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) cascade, about 50% of HIV+ pregnant women are already LTFU by delivery; within 3 months of delivery 33.9% of mother-infant pairs are also LTFU. Consequently, half of pediatric infections are currently estimated to occur in the postpartum period during breastfeeding and fewer than 40% of HEI are tested for HIV at 2-3 months. Determinants of this poor performance occur at multiple levels: healthcare delivery systems, providers, and beneficiaries (HIV-infected mothers). Current evidence suggest that beyond individual-level factors, healthcare delivery system level factors are paramount. Quality Improvement (QI) Collaborative is one of the most popular methods for organizing sustained improvement efforts at hospitals and ambulatory practices worldwide. In the Breakthrough Series approach also refer to as continuous quality improvement (CQI),10 QI teams from multiple sites across a region or country are brought together to focus on a common problem. Over one or two years, experts in clinical and performance improvement provide the group with periodic instructions and encourage the teams to share lessons learned and best practices. However, its popularity, CQI effectiveness has never been demonstrated in a randomized trial or a well-designed comparative study. The aims of the proposed study are: 1) to evaluate the effectiveness of CQI interventions in improving long-term retention in care and virological suppression in women who start lifelong ART in MCH clinics and 2) to identify modifiable health delivery system factors associated with retention in care and sustained virological suppression in women who start lifelong ART in MCH clinics. The study will be implemented in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): an extremely resource-limited country that has struggled to emerge from decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption, and wars that have left its health infrastructures in shambles. We will conduct a cluster-randomized trial with health districts as the randomization unit. MCH clinics in the intervention group, will undergo CQI initiatives using participatory data-driven approaches and on-site monitoring and supervisory support. We will use surveys of health facilities, including selected staff, and service beneficiaries (HIV infected mothers) to collect data on key characteristics of the service delivery's organization and providers' and patients' perspective of the HIV care delivery performance. The main outcomes will be LTFU/retention in care, virological suppression and MTCT rates evaluated at 24 months postpartum.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

HIV/AIDS Antiretroviral Therapy Pregnancy Outcomes HIV-exposed Infants

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Blinding Strategy

DOUBLE

Participants Outcome Assessors

The intervention will be implemented at the health facility level by the health facility staff under the supervision of health districts supervisors and investigators. As such, care providers nor investigations cannot be masked from the intervention. however, participant will not be told about the intervention or which study group they are in.

Study Groups

Review each arm or cohort in the study, along with the interventions and objectives associated with them.

Continuous quality improvement (CQI)

Quality improvement initiatives implemented at facility level using participatory data-driven approaches and on-site monitoring and supervisory support

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Continuous quality improvement

Intervention Type OTHER

A quality improvement team at the health district and at the clinics levels. A clinic level QI team will include at least one staff each from antenatal care (ANC), delivery/maternity, and well-child services. The head of the each QI team plus a supervisor from the health district bureau and a study team member constitute the district QI team. Immediately following randomization, we will bring together QI teams to review program and quality indicators from their clinics and across districts to identify key bottlenecks in the care delivery system and agree on an action plan to modify them. QI teams will be responsible for the implementation of the action plan at the level of their respective clinics. Every three months, using data from the monitoring system, the process will be repeated for a duration 18 months. To limit possible contamination, all staff from a randomized district/clinic who may have a dual appointment in another facility will be excluded from QI teams.

Standard of care

In health districts randomized to standard of care, the same strengthening of the data collection system for the monitoring of indicators as in the intervention group will be implemented. At least once a month, a study staff will visit each clinics irrespective of their randomization to extract information for the mother-infant register into an electronic database. No report on indicators will be produced for those clinic for the duration of the study. Staff from clinics and health district bureau in the standard of care group will not be associated with the quarterly review of the indicators. The study will not influence with any other HIV service provision activity in the standard of care group.

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.

Continuous quality improvement

A quality improvement team at the health district and at the clinics levels. A clinic level QI team will include at least one staff each from antenatal care (ANC), delivery/maternity, and well-child services. The head of the each QI team plus a supervisor from the health district bureau and a study team member constitute the district QI team. Immediately following randomization, we will bring together QI teams to review program and quality indicators from their clinics and across districts to identify key bottlenecks in the care delivery system and agree on an action plan to modify them. QI teams will be responsible for the implementation of the action plan at the level of their respective clinics. Every three months, using data from the monitoring system, the process will be repeated for a duration 18 months. To limit possible contamination, all staff from a randomized district/clinic who may have a dual appointment in another facility will be excluded from QI teams.

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Check the participation requirements, including inclusion and exclusion rules, age limits, and whether healthy volunteers are accepted.

Inclusion Criteria

* All women diagnosed with HIV during pregnancy or breastfeeding in the participating maternal and child health (MCH) clinics and initiated on antiretroviral therapy (ART) during the enrollment period

Exclusion Criteria

* Refuse to participate
* Clinics will be excluded if less than 500 pregnant women (less than 5 HIV-infected pregnant women) registered for antenatal care (ANC) in the clinic in 2015

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No