"Project YES! has given me a task to reach undetectable": Qualitative findings from a peer mentoring program for youth living with HIV in Zambia.

Autor: Merrill KG; Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America., Frimpong C; Arthur Davison Children's Hospital, Ndola, Zambia., Burke VM; Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America., Abrams EA; Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America., Miti S; Arthur Davison Children's Hospital, Ndola, Zambia., Mwansa JK; Arthur Davison Children's Hospital, Ndola, Zambia., Denison JA; Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2023 Oct 13; Vol. 18 (10), pp. e0292719. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Oct 13 (Print Publication: 2023).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292719
Abstrakt: The Project YES! clinic-based peer mentoring program was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted among 276 youth from four HIV clinics to test the impact of the program on promoting HIV self-management and reducing internalized stigma among youth living with HIV (ages 15-24 years) in Ndola, Zambia. We conducted a qualitative sub-study involving in-depth interviews with 40 intervention youth participants (21 female, 19 male) to explore their experiences with Project YES! which included: an orientation meeting led by a healthcare provider, monthly individual and group counseling sessions over six months, and three optional caregiver group sessions. Using baseline RCT data, we used maximum variation sampling to purposively select youth by sex, age, change in virologic results between baseline and midline, and study clinic. A four-person team conducted thematic coding. Youth described their increased motivation to take their HIV care seriously due to Project YES!, citing examples of improvements in ART adherence and for some, virologic results. Many cited changes in behavior in the context of greater feelings of self-worth and acceptance of their HIV status, resulting in less shame and fear associated with living with HIV. Youth also attributed Project YES! with reducing their sense of isolation and described Project YES! youth peer mentors and peers as their community and "family." Findings highlight that self-worth and personal connections play a critical role in improving youths' HIV outcomes. Peer-led programs can help foster these gains through a combination of individual and group counseling sessions. Greater attention to the context in which youth manage their HIV, beyond medication intake, is needed to reach global HIV targets.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2023 Merrill et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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