Developing a Smartphone App to Improve Treatment Adherence among South African Adolescents Living with HIV

Faculty:

Countries:

Sponsors:

  • NIH-National Institute of Mental Health

Collaborators:

  • University of Cape Town, UNC-CH

Start Date:

End Date:

  • Ongoing

Developing a Smartphone App to Improve Treatment Adherence among South African Adolescents Living with HIV

Interventions that engage adolescents living with HIV to improve adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) are urgently needed. Adolescents repeatedly demonstrate suboptimal levels of ART adherence, which is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Developing adherence-promoting interventions for adolescents requires an understanding of factors that shape adherence from multiple levels of influence. Developmental theories suggest that adolescents are particularly sensitive to their social networks. Mobile health (mHealth) interventions, those that use mobile technology (e.g., smartphones apps) to transmit health information, hold promise as an effective way to improve ART adherence. Notably, these smartphone apps can be used to engage social networks and provide social support. Access to mobile phone technology is rapidly increasing among youth in South Africa, making mHealth interventions feasible and potentially scalable in this setting.

The purpose of this study is to customize and pilot MASI (MAsakhane Siphucule Impilo Yethu, Xhosa for “Let’s empower each other and improve our health”), an app-based intervention to promote adherence to HIV treatment among adolescents living with perinatally-acquired HIV in Cape Town, South Africa. MASI is built using the HealthMpowerment platform, a theory-based mHealth platform originally developed by One Cow Standing, a Durham-based software company, for Dr. Lisa Hightow-Weidman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Read more about the features of MASI here

This research is conducted in collaboration with Drs. Lisa Hightow-Weidman and Kathryn Muessig at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) and with Dr. Jackie Hoare at the University of Cape Town (UCT). We are in the process of iteratively customizing MASI through in-depth interviews and app-testing with adolescents living with HIV in Cape Town. We recently conducted in-depth interviews with 15 adolescents to inform the development and customization of content to address their needs. Next, we will conduct app testing of MASI. Study activities for this phase of research will include a set of two in-depth interviews with 12-16 adolescents living with HIV. During the first interview, we will install MASI on each participant’s phone. Participants will be asked to spend at least 10 minutes a day on the app for 1-3 weeks, until the second interview is scheduled. A second interview will allow participants to provide feedback based on their experience with the app, desired improvements, proposed changes to the community guidelines, and information on facilitators and barriers to uptake and daily engagement as well as any technical difficulties encountered, privacy or confidentiality concerns. 

Last updated on August 20, 2021