Effectiveness of an Intervention to Improve HIV Service Delivery for People Who Inject Drugs in Kazakhstan: A Cluster Trial.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

The increasing HIV incidence rates and suboptimal rates of testing, engagement, and retention in care for people who inject drugs (PWID) in Kazakhstan underscore the need for effective HIV care continuum interventions for PWID.

Objective

To determine the effectiveness of the Bridge HIV care continuum intervention implemented in needle and syringe programs (NSPs) in Kazakhstan.

Design, setting, and participants

This stepped-wedge cluster trial was conducted from February 2017 to May 2020, with implementation beginning sequentially across 3 cities (Almaty, Karaganda-Temirtau, and Shymkent) in August 2017, January 2018, and May 2019. Intervention effect sizes were estimated via population-averaged models, and hypothesis testing relied on a permutation testing

SUBMITTER: El-Bassel N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9716389 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature