Can Community face to face education targeting misinformation and disinformation improve HIV testing in men?

Methods

Summary

In the Randomized Controlled trial, participants’ selection followed a particular procedure. Balloting was used to get the health areas for the intervention and control group. Whether a participant came under the intervention or control arm was determined by the health area the participant’s community social group was located. In the intervention and control health areas, the men required for the study were then recruited from the community meeting groups to participate after they must have fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Recruitment ceased after the required sample was attained. We also verified the procedures that was used by other studies where randomization was also used in HIV studies, especially testing Since in the Randomized Control trial, the delivery of special care was not given in the control arm, but the control arm was left under the usual health care offered in the area, in this present research, we are applying the intervention in the control group so as not to deprive anybody from getting information and taking decisions regarding testing for HIV. Our Intervention Package comprised of Community mobilization, Health Education and HIV testing. Community mobilization will be facilitated by the community health workers with good knowledge of the structure of the health district and its communities, the community health worker will assist in consulting the community group leaders. Health Education Participants will be assessed for baseline knowledge. Health behaviour change models are useful in health education delivery. Therefore we will make use of the Health Belief Model (HBM) to create awareness about HIV through the dissemination of knowledge to motivate men through risk perception to take positive actions to know their current HIV status through testing. Description of the Intervention Conditions Application of face to face Health Education tackling misinformation and disinformation about HIV will be carried as intervention in community men’s groups that were under the Control health areas , using the adult learning method. All the health talks’ materials are reviewed and approved before the beginning of the intervention. On intervention days, there will be a brief, educational 30-minute health talk followed by questions and answers. The health education intervention involved general talk on HIV and AIDS, the important to know ones status through testing, the importance of HIV treatment and how it affects the viral load and capable of preventing further transmission of the virus. Health education will be given fourth nightly for three months while the members will be given access to contact by phone and seek for information at any time before the next meeting. HIV testing HIV testing will used to measure the health education intervention impact after 3 months. These men will be offered the opportunity to test for HIV and the uptake of HIV testing will be compared with that of the intervention group done earlier in the randomized control trial. During the testing process, the participants will be pre-counseled. An approximate 1ml of blood will be collected from the participants for HIV testing using a 2ml syringe. This is to avoid pricking the client twice, in situations where the first line test reacts positive for the HIV antibodies. We will used Determine as the first line test, and for those who reacted to the determine strips, we carried a second line test for confirmation. The test results will be handled with care to ensure confidentiality and each participant will be identified by a code and not name. Post counseling will be done and those positive will be linked to care and treatment centers for support. Measuring Impact of Intervention .The studies primary outcomes is to improved knowledge about HIV by tackling misinformation and disinformation about HIV, perception and acceptance to do an HIV Test. After three months of the intervention, we will assess the participants’ post intervention knowledge on HIV, risk perception and acceptability to take an HIV test.