Health Trials

Cash Transfers to Pregnant Women With HIV

ConditionsHIVPregnancyHIV Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) AdherencePost-partum
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexFemale
Age18+
SponsorUniversity of Pennsylvania

About this trial

The goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of an unconditional cash transfer intervention to improve mental bandwidth, ART adherence, and postpartum retention among pregnant women with HIV in Botswana.

The main questions it seeks to answer are:

1. Do unconditional monthly cash transfers improve mental bandwidth relative to usual care among pregnant women with HIV? 2. Do unconditional monthly cash transfers improve ART adherence (PDC) during pregnancy and the postpartum period? 3. Is delivery of UCTs via mobile money feasible and acceptable in public ANC clinics in Botswana? 4. What barriers and facilitators affect implementation, and how should the model be adapted for a larger trial or a policy pilot (e.g., a pregnancy support grant)?

Eligibility criteria

This trial does not accept healthy volunteers

Qualifiers

Age 18 years or greater

Botswana citizen

Seeking/receiving antenatal care at antenatal clinics managed by the District Health Management Teams in Gaborone and Mogoditsane-Thamaga District

Confirmed pregnancy by standard laboratory methods (generally urine testing)

Disqualifiers

Does not meet all of the inclusion criteria

Unable to provide consent

Cognitive impairment, per discretion of study staff

Cannot be in the same household as another enrolled study participant

Trial design

Design model

Parallel

Treatments tested in this trial

  • Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT)

    Other intervention

    Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) of 1,000 BWP/month

Treatment groups

100 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groups
Group A: Cash-Transfer InterventionExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group B: Usual careNo intervention 0 interventions

Trial outcomes

Primary outcomes

1

Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) adherence

Proportion of doses covered: Sum of days covered by dispensed medication in the observation period) / (Total number of days in the observation period). This is using pharmacy refill data.

Time frame
From baseline visit through 6 months post-partum
2

Mental bandwidth: Psychomotor Vigilance Task

Results from Psychomotor Vigilance Task (response time, number of minor lapses and false starts)

Time frame
At baseline visit, gestational age ≥ 30 weeks (visit 2), 3-6 months post-partum (visit 3)
3

Mental bandwidth: Raven's Progressive Matrices

Raven's Progressive Matrices short form (number of correct answers)

Time frame
Baseline visit, gestational age ≥30 weeks (visit 2), 3-6 months post-partum (visit 3)
4

Feasibility of intervention

Feasibility of Intervention Measure, 4-item scale (1-4), higher score indicates greater feasibility; Qualitative interview

Time frame
At gestational age ≥ 30 weeks (visit 2), 3-6 months post-partum (visit 3); qualitative interviews are 3-8 months post-partum

Secondary outcomes

1

Food security

Household Hunger Scale - measures the severity of hunger in a household based on experiences of food deprivation over the past 30 days, scale of 1-3, higher number indicates lower food security

Time frame
At baseline visit, gestational age ≥ 30 weeks (visit 2), 3-6 months post-partum (visit 3)
2

Time Preferences (Future Orientation)

Preference Survey Module - measures self-described temporal discounting with a 10-point probabilistic scale; Patience (Brownback) - measures number of weeks willing to wait for an increased payment (delayed economic gratification)

Time frame
At baseline visit, gestational age ≥ 30 weeks (visit 2), 3-6 months post-partum (visit 3)
3

Time Horizon

Time Horizon (Laajaj) - length of time finances are planned in advance

Time frame
At baseline visit, gestational age ≥ 30 weeks (visit 2), 3-6 months post-partum (visit 3)
4

Hope

State Hope Scale, 8-item scale - self-report measure of goal directed thinking, values 1-8, higher value indicates greater hope

Time frame
At baseline visit, gestational age ≥ 30 weeks (visit 2), 3-6 months post-partum (visit 3)

Other outcomes

Sponsors and contacts

Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.

University of Pennsylvania

Lead sponsor

University of Botswana

Collaborator

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Collaborator

Source ClinicalTrials.gov
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