Testing and linkage to HIV care in China: a cluster-randomised trial.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Multistage, stepwise HIV testing and treatment procedures can result in lost opportunities to provide timely antiretroviral therapy (ART). Incomplete engagement of patients along the care cascade translates into high preventable mortality. We aimed to identify whether a structural intervention to streamline testing and linkage to HIV health care would improve testing completeness, ART initiation, and viral suppression and reduce mortality.

Methods

We did a cluster-randomised, controlled trial in 12 hospitals in Guangxi, China. All hospitals were required to be level 2A county general hospitals and ART delivery sites. We selected the 12 most similar hospitals in terms of structural characteristics, past patient caseloads, and testing procedures. Hospitals were rand

SUBMITTER: Wu Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6639122 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature