Do Gifts Increase Consent to Home-based HIV Testing? A Difference-in-differences Study in Rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Data(s) |
18/04/2016
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Resumo |
<b>Background </b>Despite the importance of HIV testing for controlling the HIV epidemic, testing rates remain low. Efforts to scale-up testing coverage and frequency in hard-to-reach and at-risk populations commonly focus on home-based HIV testing. This study evaluates the effect of a gift (a food voucher for families, worth US$ 5) on consent rates for home-based HIV testing.<br/><b>Methods</b> We use data on 18,478 men and women who participated in the 2009 and 2010 population-based HIV surveillance carried out by the Wellcome Trust Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Our quasi-experimental difference-in-differences approach controls for unobserved confounding in estimating the causal effect of the intervention on HIV testing consent rates.<br/><b>Results</b> Allocation of the gift to a family in 2010 increased the probability of family members consenting to test in 2010 by 25 percentage points (95% CI 21-30; p<0.001). The intervention effect persisted, slightly attenuated, in the year following the intervention (2011), further increasing intervention value for money. <br/><b>Conclusions</b> In HIV hyperendemic settings a gift can be highly effective at increasing consent rates for home-based HIV testing. Given the importance of HIV testing for treatment uptake and individual health, as well as for HIV treatment-and-prevention strategies and for monitoring the population impact of the HIV response, gifts should be considered as a supportive intervention for HIV testing initiatives where consent rates have been low. |
Identificador | |
Idioma(s) |
eng |
Direitos |
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess |
Fonte |
McGovern , M E , Herbst , K , Tanser , F , Mutevedzi , T , Canning , D , Gareta , D , Pillay , D & Bärnighausen , T 2016 , ' Do Gifts Increase Consent to Home-based HIV Testing? A Difference-in-differences Study in Rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa ' International Journal of Epidemiology . |
Palavras-Chave | #Home-based HIV testing #Gift voucher intervention #Difference-in-differences #Rural South Africa |
Tipo |
article |