Integrating HIV prevention activities into the HIV medical care setting: a report from the NYC HIV Centers Consortium

Reducing non-injection drug use in HIV primary care: A randomized trial of brief motivational interviewing, with and without HealthCall, a technology-based enhancement

AIMS

In HIV-infected individuals, non-injection drug use (NIDU) compromises many health outcomes. In HIV primary care, the efficacy of brief motivational interviewing (MI) to reduce NIDU is unknown, and drug users may need greater intervention. We designed an enhancement to MI, HealthCall (HC), for daily patient self-monitoring calls to an interactive voice response (IVR) phone system, and provided participants with periodic personalized feedback. To reduce NIDU among HIV primary care patients, we compared the efficacy of MI+HealthCall to MI-only and an educational control condition.

DESIGN

Participants age >18 with >4days of NIDU during the prior 30days were recruited from large urban HIV primary care clinics. Of the 240 participants, 83 were randomly assigned to control, 77 to MI-only, and 80 to MI+HC. Counselors provided educational control, MI-only or MI+HC at baseline. At 30 and 60days (end-of-treatment), counselors briefly discussed drug use, moods and health behaviors, using HealthCall-generated graphs with MI+HC patients. Primary outcomes (last 30days) were number of days used primary drug (NumDU), and total quantity of primary drug used (dollar amount spent; QuantU), derived from the Time-Line Follow-Back.

FINDINGS

Across all groups, at end-of-treatment, frequency and quantity of NIDU decreased, with significantly greater reductions in the MI-Only group. A twelve-month post-treatment follow-up indicated sustained benefits of MI+HC and MI-only relative to control.

CONCLUSIONS

Brief interventions can be successfully used to reduce non-injection drug use in HIV primary care. IVR-based technology may not be sufficiently engaging to be effective. Future studies should investigate mobile technology to deliver a more engaging version of HealthCall to diverse substance abusing populations.

Global burden of transmitted HIV drug resistance and HIV-exposure categories: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVES

Our aim was to review the global disparities of transmitted HIV drug resistance (TDR) in antiretroviral-naive MSM, people who inject drugs (PWID) and heterosexual populations in both high-income and low/middle-income countries.

DESIGN/METHODS

We undertook a systematic review of the peer-reviewed English literature on TDR (1999-2013). Random-effects meta-analyses were performed to pool TDR prevalence and compare the odds of TDR across at-risk groups.

RESULTS

A total of 212 studies were included in this review. Areas with greatest TDR prevalence were North America (MSM: 13.7%, PWID: 9.1%, heterosexuals: 10.5%); followed by western Europe (MSM: 11.0%, PWID: 5.7%, heterosexuals: 6.9%) and South America (MSM: 8.3%, PWID: 13.5%, heterosexuals: 7.5%). Our data indicated disproportionately high TDR burdens in MSM in Oceania (Australia 15.5%), eastern Europe/central Asia (10.2%) and east Asia (7.8%). TDR epidemics have stabilized in high-income countries, with a higher prevalence (range 10.9-12.6%) in MSM than in PWID (5.2-8.3%) and heterosexuals (6.4-9.0%) over 1999-2013. In low/middle-income countries, TDR prevalence in all at-risk groups in 2009-2013 almost doubled than that in 2004-2008 (MSM: 7.8 vs. 4.2%, P = 0.011; heterosexuals: 4.1 vs. 2.6%, P < 0.001; PWID: 4.8 vs. 2.4%, P = 0.265, respectively). The risk of TDR infection was significantly greater in MSM than that in heterosexuals and PWID. We observed increasing trends of resistance to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase and protease inhibitors among MSM.

CONCLUSION

TDR prevalence is stabilizing in high-income countries, but increasing in low/middle-income countries. This is likely due to the low, but increasing, coverage of antiretroviral therapy in these settings. Transmission of TDR is most prevalent among MSM worldwide.

HIV care providers' implementation of routine alcohol reduction support for their patients

Screening and brief intervention (SBI) for alcohol reduction is an important health promoting strategy for patients with HIV, and HIV care providers are optimally situated to support their patients' reduction efforts. We report results from analyses that use data collected from providers (n = 115) in 7 hospital-based HIV care centers in the New York City metropolitan area in 2007 concerning their routine use of 11 alcohol SBI components with their patients. Providers routinely implemented 5 or more of these alcohol SBI components if they (1) had a specific caseload (and were therefore responsible for a smaller number of patients), (2) had greater exposure to information about alcohol's effect on HIV, (3) had been in their present positions for at least 1 year, and (4) had greater self efficacy to support patients' alcohol reduction efforts. Findings suggest the importance of educating all HIV care providers about both the negative impact of excessive alcohol use on patients with HIV and the importance and value of alcohol SBIs. Findings also suggest the value of promoting increased self efficacy for at least some providers in implementing alcohol SBI components, especially through targeted alcohol SBI training.