Peer health workers: Impact on retention, care and secondary prevention of PLHIV

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): My career goal is to become a global leader in multidisciplinary HIV/AIDS research in resource- limited settings with a focus on research integrating HIV clinical care and secondary HIV prevention strategies. My short term goal is to establish myself as an independent investigator as a tenure-track junior faculty member at Johns Hopkins and to develop a productive and sustainable program of research in Uganda. Research Project. My proposed research consists of two phases: Phase 1-Perform secondary behavioral outcomes analyses on a dataset of a trial conducted to assess the effect of peer health workers on AIDS care outcomes in Rakai, Uganda. Concurrently, I will perform cost-effectiveness analysis of this peer health worker intervention. Phase 2- Perform comprehensive formative research and then implement a community-based trial of a peer health worker intervention to integratively (i) improve patient retention, (ii) increase basic care package utilization, and (iii) decrease risky sexual behaviors among PLHIV not yet on antiretroviral therapy. The peer health worker intervention will center on home visits to individual patients. Subsequently, I will perform cost-effectiveness analysis of this intervention. Career Development Plan. My proposed training and mentoring activities will center on (i) behavioral intervention research and ii) cost-effectiveness analysis research of HIV prevention and care interventions. My proposed applied research, which will be closely coordinated with my training activities, will focus on the impact of peer health workers, a group of community health workers who are people living with HIV, on integrated patient retention, care, and secondary HIV prevention efforts in Rakai, Uganda. Research Environment. I will be well supported within the well funded and respected Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins. I will also have the excellent and proven research infrastructure of the Rakai Health Sciences Program in Uganda to support the design and implementation of my research plan. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: These study findings may serve as a model for the design of large scale peer health worker-led interventions to improve the care, retention, and secondary HIV prevention of people living with HIV in low-resource settings. These studies may serve as a model for integrating prevention and care interventions, an area in which there is a critical need for innovative, inexpensive, and effective interventions.