Le Kip Kip: A Campaign to Change Social Norms and Build Sustainable Demand for PrEP Among Women in South Africa

Sponsor
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Study ID
NCT05417620
Status
Completed

Conditions

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
FEMALE
Age
15 Years - N/A
Healthy Volunteers
Not accepted

Interventions

  • Social Media Campaign — BEHAVIORAL
    PrEP social influence campaign, which will use online approaches to promote PrEP within communities in addition to the standard of care activities. Messaging crafted with community input will be geographically targeted to women, parents/mentors, and male partners on Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp, all with the intention to promote PrEP for women at high risk of HIV infection and change community norms and influence around PrEP. A combination of static imagery and brief videos will be used to engage these groups via social media platforms. A Facebook page will be created and maintained that can be accessed by anyone anywhere, but will only be advertised/promoted in the intervention districts.
  • PrEP Champions — BEHAVIORAL
    Within venues served by the FSW and AGYW programs, the team will identify and train 1 venue-based PrEP champion per venue who will receive supplies (e.g. a hat, pin and posters, flyers, IEC material) to wear to promote PrEP, facilitate linkage between women interested in PrEP and the TB HIV Care PrEP programme. PrEP champions will be either peers with experience taking PrEP, venue managers or local influencers (e.g. women running shops next to the mobile serving AGYW) that have repeated contact with the women the programme is intended to serve. The final selection of PrEP champions will be made in consultation with the Community Advisory Groups, venues and by the programme who works closely with each of the sites.
  • Community Mobilization — BEHAVIORAL
    A PrEP community mobilization team (2 peers, including one woman and one man) will be recruited within each ward to promote PrEP. The team will present information about PrEP and the PrEP programme at the ward councilors meeting, at Learning Support Agent meetings with parents/guardians, at local events/fairs, community meetings and through engaging men, women and parents across the community through informal conversations. Teams will be wearing branded material and will focus on presenting factual information and decreasing PrEP stigma. Each team will focus on promoting PrEP within their own ward over the 6-month period.
  • Standard of Care — OTHER
    Full-time peer educators employed by the TB HIV Care programme to engage women, layer PrEP promotion across prevention programs, and implement "refer a friend" strategies, information, education and communication (IEC) materials, service user testimonials, risk reduction posters to increase young women's perception of risk, working after hours/weekends to reach young women, working with school governing bodies, and door-to-door outreach.

Study Details

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a social media campaign and community engagement activities to promote pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use among young women and to influence community norms around PrEP in South Africa. To do this, the investigative team will analyze PrEP initiation and retention data from the study's implementing partner, TB HIV Care, a non-profit organization providing PrEP to marginalized young women in South Africa. The effect of the social media campaign and community engagement will be tested using a short duration cluster randomized trial (CRT).

Key Dates

Start date
Oct 1, 2022
Status verified
Jul 2025
Primary completion
Sep 30, 2023
Completion
Nov 20, 2023

Study Design

Enrollment
601 participants (actual)
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
FACTORIAL
Primary purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Arms

  • Other: Standard of Care
    Full-time peer educators employed by the TB HIV Care programme to engage women, layer PrEP promotion across prevention programs, and implement "refer a friend" strategies, information, education and communication (IEC) materials, service user testimonials, risk reduction posters to increase young women's perception of risk, working after hours/weekends to reach young women, working with school governing bodies, and door-to-door outreach.
  • Experimental: Enhanced social media campaign
    Social media campaign which will be disseminated on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp with targeted ads/promotion of materials in intervention districts.
  • Experimental: Enhanced social media campaign + PrEP champions
    Venue-based peers who will provide PrEP information, share personal experiences with PrEP, and refer young women to TB HIV Care to receive PrEP if interested in addition to the enhanced social media campaign.
  • Experimental: Enhanced social media campaign + Community mobilization
    Peers will work within wards to organize and attend community meetings to share PrEP information and facilitate discussions with young women, male partners, family members, and other community members in addition to the enhanced social media campaign.
  • Experimental: Enhanced social media campaign + PrEP champions + Community mobilization
    Clusters in this arm will receive both the PrEP champion and community mobilization interventions in addition to the enhanced social media campaign.

Primary Outcome Measure

Number of Service-users Who Initiate PrEP Uptake Within the TB HIV Care Programme [ Time Frame: 12 months ]

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