Alcohol abstinence stigma and alcohol use among HIV patients in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam

Scaling up a brief alcohol intervention to prevent HIV infection in Vietnam: a cluster randomized, implementation trial

BACKGROUND

Evidence-based interventions (EBIs) often address normative behaviors. If a behavior is also common among clinicians, they may be skeptical about the necessity or effectiveness of an EBI. Alternatively, clinicians' attitudes and behaviors may be misaligned, or they may lack the knowledge and self-efficacy to deliver the EBI. Several EBIs address unhealthy alcohol use, a common and often culturally acceptable behavior. But unhealthy alcohol use may be particularly harmful to people with HIV (PWH). Here, we present an implementation trial using an experiential implementation strategy to address clinicians' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Clinicians receive the experiential intervention before they begin delivering an evidence-based brief alcohol intervention (BAI) to PWH with unhealthy alcohol use.

METHODS

Design: In this hybrid type 3 implementation-effectiveness cluster randomized controlled trial, ART clinics (n = 30) will be randomized 1:1 to facilitation, a flexible strategy to address implementation barriers, or facilitation plus the experiential brief alcohol intervention (EBAI). In the EBAI arm, clinicians, irrespective of their alcohol use, will be offered the BAI as experiential learning. EBAI will address clinicians' alcohol-related attitudes and behaviors and increase their knowledge and confidence to deliver the BAI.

PARTICIPANTS

ART clinic staff will be enrolled and assessed at pre-BAI training, post-BAI training, 3, 12, and 24 months. All PWH at the ART clinics who screen positive for unhealthy alcohol use will be offered the BAI. A subset of PWH (n = 810) will be enrolled and assessed at baseline, 3, and 12 months.

OUTCOMES

We will compare implementation outcomes (acceptability, fidelity, penetration, costs, and sustainability) and effectiveness outcomes (viral suppression and alcohol use) between the two arms. We will assess the impact of site-level characteristics on scaling-up the BAI. We will also evaluate how experiencing the BAI affected clinical staff's alcohol use and clinic-level alcohol expectations in the EBAI arm.

DISCUSSION

This trial contributes to implementation science by testing a novel strategy to implement a behavior change intervention in a setting in which clinicians themselves may engage in the behavior. Experiential learning may be useful to address normative and difficult to change lifestyle behaviors that contribute to chronic diseases.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

NCT06358885 (04/10/2024), https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06358885 .

Efficacy of Two Evidence-Based Alcohol Consumption Interventions on Positive, Negative, and Neutral Days Among Hazardous Alcohol Users Living with HIV in Vietnam

Social events and stressful settings can be catalysts for alcohol consumption. Motivational enhancement therapy (MET) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) are widely used in alcohol interventions. We assessed how alcohol consumption varied across three types of days (positive/social, negative/stressful, and neutral) among hazardous alcohol users living with HIV in Vietnam. We further evaluated how those consumption patterns changed after two MET/CBT alcohol reduction interventions versus the standard of care (SOC). The 'combined' intervention offered 6 individual sessions and 3 group sessions; the 'brief' intervention offered 2 individual sessions and 2 phone calls. A 30-day timeline follow-back was administered at study visits, detailing daily drinks and events. Days were categorized as neutral, positive/social, or negative/stressful; negative binomial models and generalized estimating equations were used to estimate drinks consumed by type of day at baseline and 12 months. Prior to intervention, more drinks were consumed on positive/social days (5.2 drinks; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]:4.8, 5.7) than negative/stressful (1.5; 95% CI:1.3, 1.9) and neutral days (2.2; 95% CI: 1.9, 2.5). After the brief intervention, drinks consumed decreased on neutral days (ratio: 0.5: 95% CI: 0.4, 0.7). After the combined intervention, drinks consumed decreased on neutral days (ratio: 0.4; 95% CI: 0.3, 0.6), positive/social days (ratio: 0.6; 95% CI: 0.5, 0.7) and negative/stressful days (ratio: 0.3; 95% CI: 0.2, 0.6). No reductions in consumption were observed in the SOC group. Social/positive days had the highest alcohol consumption prior to intervention, and the combined intervention showed the greatest decrease in consumption on those days. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study is registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02720237).

Self-reported alcohol use versus phosphatidylethanol in behavioral trials: A study of people living with HIV in Tshwane, South Africa

BACKGROUND

Accurately quantifying alcohol use among persons with HIV (PWH) is important for validly assessing the efficacy of alcohol reduction interventions.

METHODS

We used data from a randomized controlled trial of an intervention to reduce alcohol use among PWH who were receiving antiretroviral therapy in Tshwane, South Africa. We calculated agreement between self-reported hazardous alcohol use measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT; score ≥8) and AUDIT-Consumption (AUDIT-C; score ≥3 for females and ≥4 for males), heavy episodic drinking (HED) in the past 30 days, and heavy drinking in the past 7 days with a gold standard biomarker--phosphatidylethanol (PEth) level (≥50 ng/mL)--among 309 participants. We used multiple logistic regression to assess whether underreporting of hazardous drinking (AUDIT-C vs. PEth) differed by sex, study arm, and assessment time point.

RESULTS

Participants' mean age was 40.6 years, 43% were males, and 48% were in the intervention arm. At 6 months, 51% had PEth ≥50 ng/mL, 38% and 76% had scores indicative of hazardous drinking on the AUDIT and AUDIT-C, respectively, 11% reported past 30-day HED, and 13% reported past 7-day heavy drinking. At 6 months, there was low agreement between AUDIT-C scores and past 7-day heavy drinking relative to PEth ≥50 (sensitivities of 83% and 20% and negative predictive values of 62% and 51%, respectively). Underreporting of hazardous drinking at 6 months was associated with sex (OR = 3.504. 95% CI: 1.080 to 11.364), with odds of underreporting being greater for females.

CONCLUSIONS

Steps should be taken to decrease underreporting of alcohol use in clinical trials.

Effect of national cultural dimensions and consumption rates on stigma toward alcohol and substance use disorders

BACKGROUND

Despite the notion of stigma as a socio-cultural process with the concept rooted in social space rather than in individual space, global studies examining impact of cultural differences on stigma toward substance use disorders are lacking.

AIM

In this study, we aim to study the influence of national culture differences on stigma toward alcohol and substance use disorders.

METHODS

We analyzed individual-level data from 68,041 respondents from 49 countries on stigma toward alcohol and substance use disorders. We examined the effect of the national culture dimensions and national alcohol and substance consumption rates on stigma toward alcohol and substance use disorders using hierarchical linear modeling.

RESULTS

Our hierarchical linear modeling results indicate that cultural dimensions and consumption rates significantly influence stigma. We found significant positive associations between stigma toward AUD and institutional collectivism and assertiveness, but a negative association with future orientation dimension. Like AUD, stigma toward SUD was also positively associated with institutional collectivism and assertiveness, but negatively associated with power distance.

CONCLUSIONS

The study findings have immense implications for national interventions to decrease stigma and influence policy making.

Effect of alcohol exposure on the efficacy and safety of tenofovir alafenamide fumarate, a major medicine against human immunodeficiency virus

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to be a major health concern. AIDS-related deaths (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) have decreased recently, but chronic liver disease is now a major cause of mortality among HIV patients. Widespread alcohol use is recognized to be a major contributing factor. Tenofovir alafenamide fumarate (TAF), one of the most used HIV drugs, requires hydrolysis followed by phosphorylation to produce tenofovir diphosphate, the ultimate anti-HIV metabolite. Carboxylesterase-1 (CES1), established to hydrolyze TAF, is known to catalyze transesterification in the presence of ethanol. The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that metabolism-based interactions between TAF and ethanol negatively impact both efficacy and safety of TAF. To test this hypothesis, the metabolism of TAF was determined in human primary hepatocytes and with a large number of human liver samples (S9 fractions) in the presence or absence of ethanol. The metabolism was monitored by LC-MS/MS (liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry) and the level of CES1 or CES2 was determined by Western blotting. Consistent with the hypothesis, TAF underwent transesterification in the presence of ethanol accompanied by decreased hydrolysis. The formation of tenofovir diphosphate (the therapeutically active metabolite) was significantly decreased. In addition, TAF but not its hydrolytic metabolite, was found to increase intracellular lipid retention, and the increase was enhanced by ethanol. These findings conclude that alcohol consumption, beyond commonly accepted poor adherence to HIV medications, directly impacts the efficacy and safety of TAF.

Stigmatizing Attitudes toward People Living with HIV among Young Women Migrant Workers in Vietnam

Despite intensive HIV education and prevention efforts in the past few years, stigmatizing attitudes toward people living with HIV (PLWH) remain a major barrier to HIV prevention and treatment efforts in Vietnam. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of stigmatizing attitudes regarding HIV and identify correlative factors that impact the perceptions of PLWH among a heretofore overlooked demographic in Vietnamese society: women who are migrant workers in designated industrial zones (IZs). A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1061 women migrant workers aged 18 to 29 from January 2020 to November 2020 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Stigmatizing attitudes toward PLWH were measured using a four-item scale. Multiple logistic regression was conducted to examine the factors associated with stigmatizing attitudes. Our findings indicate both substantial levels of stigma persisting among this demographic group as well as the influence of important mitigating factors on the expression of HIV-related stigma. Over seventy-six percent (76.2%) of the participants reported having at least one of the four stigmatizing attitudes. Greater levels of stigmatizing attitudes toward PLWH were significantly associated with lower HIV knowledge, lower levels of education, and identifying as Kinh (the ethnic majority in Vietnam). Additionally, this study found that questions framing HIV infection through a familial lens were significantly associated with lower rates of stigmatizing responses. The high overall levels of stigmatizing attitudes toward PLWH among the study participants suggests that there is an urgent need for the development of culturally appropriate interventions and outreach education activities to reduce stigmatizing attitudes toward PLWH among women who are migrant workers working in the IZs in Vietnam. This study adds to both the existing literature and current efforts and policies around HIV in Vietnam by empirically suggesting that familial-based messaging may be a powerful potential narrative for interventions addressing HIV-related issues such as stigma.

"I refused to drink but they still forced me": A mixed-methods approach to understanding the pathways to reduce alcohol use among Vietnamese people with HIV

AIMS

This study explores the effects of two evidence-based alcohol reduction counseling interventions on readiness to change, alcohol abstinence self-efficacy, social support, and alcohol abstinence stigma among people with HIV (PWH) who have hazardous alcohol use in Vietnam.

METHODS

PWH receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) were screened for hazardous drinking and randomized to one of three study arms: combined intervention (CoI), brief intervention (BI), and standard of care (SOC). A quantitative survey was conducted at baseline (N = 440) and 3-month post-intervention (N = 405), while in-depth interviews were conducted with a subset of BI and CoI participants at baseline (N = 14) and 3 months (N = 14). Data was collected from March 2016 to August 2017. A concurrent mixed-methods model was used to triangulate quantitative and qualitative data to cross-validate findings.

RESULTS

At 3 months, receiving the BI and CoI arms was associated with 2.64 and 3.50 points higher in mean readiness to change scores, respectively, compared to the SOC group (BI: β = 2.64, 95% CI: 1.17-4.12; CoI: β = 3.50, 95% CI 2.02-4.98). Mean alcohol abstinence self-efficacy scores were 4.03 and 3.93 points higher among the BI and CoI arm at 3 months, compared to SOC (BI: β = 4.03, 95% CI: 0.17-7.89; CoI: β = 3.93, 95% CI: 0.05-7.81). The impacts of the interventions on social support and alcohol abstinence stigma were not significant. Perceived challenges to refusing drinks at social events remained due to strong alcohol abstinence stigma and perceived negative support from family and friends who encouraged participants to drink posed additional barriers to reducing alcohol use.

CONCLUSIONS

Both the CoI and BI were effective in improving readiness to change and alcohol abstinence self-efficacy among PWH. Yet, participants still faced significant barriers to reducing their drinking due to social influences and pressure to drink. Interventions at different levels addressing social support and alcohol abstinence stigma are warranted.

HIV related stigma associated with social support, alcohol use disorders, depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among people living with HIV: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

Stigma is a social phenomenon known to have a negative impact on the lives of people living with HIV (PLWH). However, defining HIV-related stigma (HRS) is difficult because of the intersection it has with structural inequalities, and cultural differences, discrimination by health care providers that measure stigma among PLWH. HIV/AIDS has been characterized as a traumatic experience and PLWH may experience stigma which can cause negative mental health disorders and experiences, including emotional distress, shame, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation. A systematic review of the evidence on the mental disorders of PLWH is currently lacking. This study aimed to analyze the association between HRS and social support, alcohol use disorders and mental health disorders and experiences (depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation) among PLWH.

Methods

In accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) this study searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of sciences, PsycInfo, SciELO and Cochrane library electronic databases to identify publications between January 1992 and August 2020 that discussed social support, alcohol use disorders, mental health disorders and experiences (i.e., depression and anxiety and suicidal ideation) associated with HRS. Pooled Odds Ratios (ORs) were utilized at a 95% confidence level, and as sampling methods differed between articles pooled estimates used a random effects model.

Results

Twenty-two studies with 9548 participants met the eligibility criteria. No association was observed between HRS and alcohol use disorders. PLWH who had higher levels of social supports were less likely to report HRS. Participants who had been diagnosed with anxiety were 1.89 times more likely to report HRS, while those diagnosed with depression were 1.61 times more. Respondents who reported suicidal ideation also were 1.83 times more likely to report HRS.

Conclusions

This meta-analysis supports that HRS has a detrimental association with anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation, but social support protects again HRS in PLWH. Applying interventions which focus on the mental health disorders of PLWH may decrease HRS. Provision of social support by practitioners, combined with mental health treatment and assessments, and designing methods to identify stigma at different stages of illness are warranted.

The longitudinal association between depression, anxiety symptoms and HIV outcomes, and the modifying effect of alcohol dependence among ART clients with hazardous alcohol use in Vietnam

INTRODUCTION

Mental health disorders may negatively impact HIV outcomes, such as viral suppression (VS) and antiretroviral (ART) adherence among people with HIV (PWH) with hazardous alcohol use. This study evaluates the longitudinal association between depression, anxiety symptoms, VS and complete ART adherence among ART clients with hazardous alcohol use in Vietnam; and examines alcohol dependence as a modifier in this association.

METHODS

This was a secondary data analysis of a trial for hazardous drinking ART clients in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam. From March 2016 to May 2018, 440 ART clients with an Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Concise (AUDIT-C) score ≥4 for men and ≥3 for women were enrolled. Individuals were randomized to either a combined intervention, a brief intervention or a standard of care. Data on sociodemographics, depression, anxiety symptoms, alcohol use, VS and ART adherence were collected at baseline, three, six, and twelve months. Generalized estimating equation models controlling for intervention exposure were used to estimate time-lagged associations. Risk ratios were estimated using Poisson regression with robust variance estimation.

RESULTS

The mean age of participants was 40.2. The majority was male (96.8%), had at least some secondary school education (85.0%) and had a history of injection drug use (80.9%). No overall effect of depression and anxiety symptoms on VS was observed. When stratified by time, increased anxiety symptoms at six months were associated with VS at 12 months (adjusted risk ratio (aRR) = 1.09; 95% CI 1.02 to 1.17). An increase in depression or anxiety symptoms was associated with a decreased probability of complete ART adherence (depression symptoms: aRR = 0.95; 95% CI: 0.91 to 0.99; anxiety symptoms: aRR = 0.93; 85% CI: 0.88 to 0.99). The negative effects of anxiety symptoms on ART adherence were stronger among participants with alcohol dependence, compared to those without.

CONCLUSIONS

Depression and anxiety symptoms had no overall effect on VS, although they were associated with a lower probability of complete ART adherence. Interventions focusing on mental healthcare for PWH with hazardous alcohol use are needed, and integration of mental healthcare and alcohol reduction should be implemented in HIV primary care settings.