Developing an Intervention for Disclosure of Parental HIV to Children in China

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Worldwide, there are over 33 million persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). One of the main concerns among PLWHA who are parents is whether, when, and how to disclose their diagnosis to their children. In low resource, high-stigma settings like China, parents are desperate for guidance in disclosing yet HIV care providers remain professionally unprepared to intervene. In this R21 application, prepared in response to RFAHD- 12-205 "Disclosure of HIV-Status to Children in Low- and Middle-Income Country Settings (R21)", we propose to conduct formative work; develop an innovative, culturally appropriate disclosure-support counseling intervention for parents with adolescent children; and pilot test it in Shanghai, China. Facilitated by nurses assisted by HIV+ parent peers, the intervention will likely involve 2-3 sessions over 3 months and be administered at the clinic. Grounded in Murphy's familial disclosure model, it will comprise 3 components: individualized assessment, decision-making and support, and disclosure planning and action. Final content will be determined by the formative work, prior research, and theory on familial disclosure. A low-burden intervention that capitalizes on expanding the nurses' role, the intervention has the potential for widespread implementation to better meet the needs of PLWHA in limited-resource settings. This project is a multidisciplinary collaboration among experts in familial adaptation to HIV and child development as well as behavioral research in China. Public health officials from China and care providers will be involved from Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center (SPHCC) - the proposed study site. The team has decades of combined experience conducting HIV behavioral research in China, with preliminary research pointing to the significance and innovation of this approach and their ability to work collaboratively and successfully with Chinese investigators. The work will leverage funding from the PI's K24 Mid-Career Development Award, during which preliminary qualitative data for the study were collected. Specific aims of the 2-year project are to (1) develop a disclosure support intervention by (1a) forming provider and peer advisory boards, (1b) analyzing qualitative data, and (1c) manualizing the final counseling protocol; and (2) pilot test the disclosure support intervention by (2a) evaluating acceptability and feasibility with a preliminary randomized trial among 20 families with at least one HIV-positive parent and one child 13-17 years of age and (2b) assessing outcomes in parents (quality of life and mental health indicators, adherence, social support, and disclosure stress, efficacy, readiness, and completion); children (behavior, psychological well-being); and families (parent-child relationship, family communication). The intervention will be compared to treatment as usual, with baseline (0 mos.), immediate post-intervention (3 mos.), and 3-month follow-up (6 mos.) assessments. Public Health Relevance: This application proposes to develop a nurse-delivered, peer-assisted intervention targeting parents living with HIV in China. The goal is to assist parents in deciding whether, when, and how to disclose their HIV diagnosis to their children, in order to improve psychological functioning of themselves and their children, management of the parents' HIV disease, and overall family functioning. The intervention will be designed to address the need in low-resource settings, where there are few highly trained mental health professionals.