Community-facility linkage models and maternal and infant health outcomes in Malawi's PMTCT/ART program: A cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In sub-Saharan Africa, 3 community-facility linkage (CFL) models-Expert Clients, Community Health Workers (CHWs), and Mentor Mothers-have been widely implemented to support pregnant and breastfeeding women (PBFW) living with HIV and their infants to access and sustain care for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), yet their comparative impact under real-world conditions is poorly understood.

Methods and findings

We sought to estimate the effects of CFL models on a primary outcome of maternal loss to follow-up (LTFU), and secondary outcomes of maternal longitudinal viral suppression and infant "poor outcome" (encompassing documented HIV-positive test result, LTFU, or death), in Malawi's PMTCT/ART program. We sampled 30 of 42 high-volume health

SUBMITTER: Herce ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8516224 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature