The Spear and Shield intervention to increase the availability and acceptability of voluntary medical male circumcision in Zambia: a cluster randomised controlled trial.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Widespread voluntary medical male circumcision in Africa could avert an estimated 3·436 million HIV infections and 300,000 deaths over the next 10 years. Most Zambian men have expressed little interest in the procedure. We tested the effect of the Spear and Shield intervention designed to increase demand for voluntary medical male circumcision among these hard-to-reach men.

Methods

This cluster randomised controlled trial was done between Feb 1, 2012, and Oct 31, 2014, in Lusaka, Zambia, where HIV prevalence is 20·8%. 13 community health centres were stratified by HIV voluntary counselling and testing rates and patient census, and randomly assigned (5:5:3) to experimental (the intervention), control, or observation-only conditions. Community health centre health-c

SUBMITTER: Weiss SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4478609 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature