Increasing HIV Testing and HIV Care Utilization: The Community Based Test and Treat Initiative

Issue: Recently, the CDC has asked providers to focus on identifying HIV+ individuals through HIV testing so that they can be linked to care that can improve their health while reducing the likelihood of HIV transmission. Identifying HIV+ individuals and effectively linking them to quality care remains a challenge.

Description: This presentation will discuss recruitment, linkage to care, and retention strategies as well as preliminary findings from a community based quasi-experimental evaluation of Modelo de Intervención Psicomédica, a holistic behavioral intervention to reduce HIV risk among intravenous drug users (IDUs)in Newark, NJ. One hundred and twenty HIV+ individuals struggling with substance abuse will be distributed into comparison or experimental group by the summer of 2015. Participants complete a baseline, 3 and 6 months follow-ups about their behaviors, services used, and medical outcomes. Comparison group receives treatment as usual at another community agency.  

Lessons Learned: Currently 40 individuals were recruited and 20 have completed the follow-up. All participants are Black, HIV+, poor, and using drugs at baseline. Preliminary analyses indicate that transportation and navigation services are key to linking and retaining intervention patients into care.

Recommendations: Once recruitment is completed, data will be prepared and t-test analysis will be conducted to assess baseline differences between groups. Intent-to-treat sample will be used for follow-up comparisons. T-test analysis will be used to compare linkage to care, substance use frequency, medication adherence, CD4 count, and HIV risk behavior. Multiple regression analysis will be used to examine the impact of moderating variables on outcome variables.