Title: Developing MASI: An mHealth Intervention to Improve Treatment Adherence among Adolescents with HIV in South Africa.
Speaker: Marta Mulawa, Assistant Professor of Nursing and Global Health, Duke University School of Nursing
Time: Nov 11 at 3pm
Abstract: There are approximately 1.8 million adolescents with HIV worldwide, and millions of children currently living with HIV will be growing into adolescence in the coming years. Adolescents with HIV repeatedly demonstrate lower or suboptimal adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) compared to adults, and suboptimal ART adherence is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Mobile health (mHealth) interventions, those that use mobile technology (e.g., smartphones apps) to transmit health information, hold promise as an effective way to improve ART adherence. With funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, our team has developed a MASI (MAsakhane Siphucule Impilo Yethu, Xhosa for 'Let's empower each other and improve our health"), a smartphone app-based intervention to support adolescents with HIV in Cape Town, South Africa. MASI is built on the HealthMpowerment platform and is designed to foster social support, offer tools for self-monitoring and habit formation, provide resources for goal setting and action planning, and present users with engaging informational resources. We are in the process of iteratively customizing MASI through in-depth interviews and app-testing with adolescents with HIV in Cape Town. A pilot randomized controlled trial to test the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of MASI on adherence and social support is planned to begin March, 2022.
Speaker's bio: Marta Mulawa, PhD, MHS, is an assistant professor in the Duke University School of Nursing with a secondary appointment in the Duke Global Health Institute. Dr. Mulawa received her PhD in Health Behavior at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her MHS in International Health with a focus on Social and Behavioral Interventions from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Mulawa’s research focuses on improving population health by examining and addressing social and behavioral determinants of HIV treatment and prevention outcomes in global settings. To inform the development of these HIV interventions, her research also aims to improve our understanding of how social networks influence various HIV-related behaviors. Dr. Mulawa is the recipient of a K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health. The focus of this research is to develop and pilot test a mobile health (mHealth) intervention to promote ART adherence of adolescents with HIV in Cape Town, South Africa. She is also a Co-Investigator on a NIH-funded R01 evaluating the effectiveness of an online, mobile-optimized intervention to reduce stigma and improve HIV prevention and care behaviors among vulnerable populations in the United States.
Link: https://uci.zoom.us/j/98611786905
Meeting ID: 986 1178 6905
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