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Project

Building HIV competent households: A sustainable answer to HIV prevention and treatment challenges in South Africa.

The response to the HIV epidemic in South Africa is complicated by human resource shortages in healthcare. Building health-enabling households with the capacity to actively stimulate a lifestyle that fosters health offers a potential strategy to tackle South Africa's current prevention and treatment challenges. Research is thus urgently needed on how to create 'HIV competent households', which adopt preventive strategies and help HIV positive members to adhere to treatment and remain in care. Aim of this post-doctoral research is to investigate to what extent and how a household intervention can: (1) increase HIV competence in people living with HIV (PLWH) and their households, and subsequently (2) improve prevention (PLWH + household) and treatment (PLWH) outcomes. Methodologically, this study adopts a longitudinal mixed methods design. To respond to our quantitative research aims, data from the cluster randomized controlled trial, the "HIV competent Household" (HCH) study, will be analysed, using latent cross-lagged modelling. To construct a comprehensive picture of the mechanisms underlying the impact of the intervention on the household and the PLWH, various qualitative data sources will be used (i.e., participatory observations and repeated in-depth interviews with PLWH; and their household members).
Date:1 Oct 2018 →  30 Sep 2021
Keywords:SOUTH AFRICA, HIV
Disciplines:Applied sociology, Policy and administration, Social psychology, Social stratification, Social theory and sociological methods, Sociology of life course, family and health, Other sociology and anthropology
Project type:Collaboration project