Impact of a community-wide combination HIV prevention intervention on knowledge of HIV status among adolescents

To determine the impact of a community-wide combination HIV-prevention package (PopART Intervention) that includes universal testing and treatment (UTT) on knowledge of HIV status, among adolescents aged 15--19 years.

The HPTN 071 (PopART) for Youth (P-ART-Y) study was nested within HPTN 071 (PopART), a three-arm, cluster-randomized trial conducted from 2013 through 2018 in 21 communities in Zambia and South Africa. Communities were randomly assigned to arm A (combination prevention intervention with universal ART), arm B (prevention intervention with ART provided according to local guidelines), or arm C (standard-of-care).

Knowledge of HIV status was measured using data collected during the third round of the PopART intervention in arms A and B (October 2016 to December 2017) and by conducting a cross-sectional survey (August to November 2017) in arm C communities to provide comparative data. The survey was conducted among ∼200 randomly selected adolescents in each community. We used linear regression of the 21 community-level values to make comparisons among trial arms.

Knowledge of HIV status was 78.2% (23 544/30 089) in arm A and 76.0% (24 417/32 148) in arm B communities, compared with 32.9% (698/2120) in arm C communities. Knowledge of HIV status varied by country, triplet, sex, and age. The adjusted mean difference was 42.3% between arm A with arm C, 95% CI 28.1-56.6, P less than 0.001 and 40.4% between arm B with arm C, 95% CI 24.6-56.2, P < 0.001).

Implementation of a community-wide combination HIV-prevention package that includes UTT substantially enhanced knowledge of HIV status among adolescents.