A Culturally Adapted SMS Text Messaging Intervention to Promote Antiretroviral Therapy Adherence Among African Americans: Protocol for a Single-Arm Trial
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: African Americans are disproportionally affected by HIV and have poorer rates of antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence compared to other racial or ethnic groups in the United States. Factors associated with poor HIV disease outcomes are commonly associated with sociostructural barriers that prevent engagement with and retention in HIV care. SMS text messaging interventions to promote ART adherence among predominantly non-Hispanic White persons with HIV (PWH) have been shown to be efficacious; however, limited research has been devoted to culturally tailoring interventions for underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. Considering African Americans show poorer engagement along the HIV care continuum, we developed an individualized and culturally tailored two-way SMS text messaging intervention to improve ART adherence and associated virologic suppression among African American PWH. OBJECTIVE: In this paper we describe the protocol of a culturally tailored individualized Texting for Adherence Building (iTAB) intervention in a 24- to 48-week, single-arm study. METHODS: We developed a culturally tailored iTAB intervention, which we are implementing in a 24- to 48-week, single-arm study. Participants were recruited from the Family Health Centers of San Diego (FHCSD), a federally qualified health center. Patient inclusion criteria were (1) receiving care at the FHCSD, (2) living with HIV, (3) self-identification as Black, African American, or of African ancestry, (4) English speaking, (5) age 18 or older, (6) currently on ART, and (7) able to provide informed consent. Study enrollment began in November 2017 and closed in July 2019. A total of 90 participants from the FHCSD enrolled in the iTAB intervention, and we anticipate completing data collection in July 2020. Participants were assisted in individualizing and customizing their SMS text message preferences at the baseline study visit. Self-assessment measures are collected at baseline, interim, and final study visits. Problems related to sending/receiving SMS text messages and barriers to ART adherence are assessed at each interim study visit. The FHCSD staff monitors and tracks participants' daily SMS text message responses to ART adherence reminders using a clinical dashboard. RESULTS: We hypothesize that the proportion of individuals achieving HIV virologic suppression (viral load <40 copies/mL) will be greater at the end of the intervention period compared to the proportion prior to study implementation. Additionally, we anticipate that rates of virologic suppression at the end of the intervention among participants receiving iTAB will be comparable to those among the general FHCSD non-African American population who did not receive iTAB. Finally, we anticipate a high response rate to iTAB SMS text messages as well as positive participant feedback at the end of the intervention with regard to the acceptability of, satisfaction with, and perceived efficacy of iTAB. CONCLUSIONS: The iTAB intervention is a novel individualized two-way SMS text messaging intervention that has been culturally tailored for use among African Americans with HIV. We anticipate that iTAB will demonstrate efficacy in future randomized control trials and will be supportive of medication adherence among other populations facing health disparities. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/21592.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.017 | 0.019 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.005 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.008 | 0.005 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.004 | 0.003 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.004 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.004 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.007 | 0.009 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.063 | 0.010 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".