Tuesday, March 3, 2026 3/3/2026

Poverty, Mental Bandwidth, and an Unconditional Cash Transfer Intervention to Enable Health Behaviors for Pregnant People with HIV

Award Number: K23MH131464
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: TRAINING/TRAINEESHIP
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 08/01/2022
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 07/31/2025

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Poverty, Mental Bandwidth, and an Unconditional Cash Transfer Intervention to Enable Health Behaviors for Pregnant People with HIV - PROJECT SUMMARY Candidate: I am a Fellow in Infectious Diseases at the University of Pennsylvania and a physician-scientist with a Master of Public Health degree and 5 years of experience working in rural Haiti. While I have a strong track record of published research at the intersection of poverty, food security, and infectious diseases, my experiences have motivated me to shift my research in two ways. First, I have developed an interest in poverty's effects on decision-making, including the theory of poverty's psychological impacts, the empirical measures of these impacts, and the scientific approaches used to examine the effects of poverty alleviation on health behaviors and outcomes. Second, I plan to move from observational work towards the design and execution of hybrid effectiveness-implementation clinical trials of innovative economic interventions to improve HIV outcomes. Background: Poverty is an important contributor to poor short- and long-term HIV outcomes for pregnant people with HIV (PrPWH). This problem is particularly salient in Haiti, where 25% of people live in extreme poverty and only half of PrPWH are retained in care 12 months after starting ART. Recent research in behavioral economics has shown that poverty can result in worse health outcomes by taxing mental bandwidth, resulting in a heightened focus on immediate needs and less attention to future-oriented decisions. Mental bandwidth is likely further taxed by the added burdens of HIV and the perinatal period. Consequently, anti-poverty interventions targeting PrPWH may be particularly effective at improving health outcomes. Training: To achieve research independence, I require additional training in 1) behavioral economics and the decision-making processes underlying health behaviors; 2) the conduct and analysis of qualitative studies; and 3) hybrid effectiveness-implementation clinical trials. Mentors: My training and research plans will be overseen by Dr. Harsha Thirumurthy, who has extensive mentoring experience and expertise in developing and testing economic interventions to improve HIV outcomes. Drs. Louise Ivers (research in rural Haiti, qualitative design), Florence Momplaisir (implementation science, qualitative design, PrPWH), and Heather Schofield (mental bandwidth measures in poverty) will be additional co-mentors, and Drs. Christophe Millien (PrPWH in Haiti) and Alisa Stephens-Shield (biostatistics) will be advisors. Research: I will use 3 aims to accomplish my objective of assessing a key pathway — mental bandwidth — by which poverty (and cash transfers to combat poverty) can affect health behaviors among PrPWH in rural Haiti: 1) Characterize the relationship between mental bandwidth, HIV, and the perinatal period; 2) Identify key characteristics of an unconditional cash transfer intervention for PrPWH; and 3) Conduct a Hybrid Type 2 effectiveness-implementation trial of an unconditional cash transfer intervention for PrPWH. This research will be conducted at St. Boniface Hospital in Fond-des-Blancs, Haiti. I will use the findings from this K23 as the basis for an R01 proposal to conduct a larger trial of an unconditional cash transfer powered for clinical outcomes (e.g., postpartum viral suppression).


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2026	2025	TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, THE	3451 WALNUT STREET	PHILADELPHIA	PA	19104	PHILADELPHIA	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	4	11/18/2025	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$0
2026	2024	TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, THE	3451 WALNUT STREET	PHILADELPHIA	PA	19104	PHILADELPHIA	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	001	3	12/17/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $380,589 )
2025	2025	TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, THE	3451 WALNUT ST STE 440A	PHILADELPHIA	PA	19104	PHILADELPHIA	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	001	4	8/29/2025	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$380,589
2025	2024	TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, THE	3451 WALNUT ST STE 440A	PHILADELPHIA	PA	19104	PHILADELPHIA	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	3	8/28/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $380,589

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $192,170 )
2024	2024	TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, THE	3451 WALNUT ST STE 440A	PHILADELPHIA	PA	19104	PHILADELPHIA	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	3	7/26/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$192,170
														Subtotal = $192,170

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $190,050 )
2023	2023	TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, THE	3451 WALNUT ST STE 440A	PHILADELPHIA	PA	19104	PHILADELPHIA	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	2	8/3/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$190,050
														Subtotal = $190,050

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $192,824 )
2022	2022	TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, THE	3451 WALNUT ST STE 440A	PHILADELPHIA	PA	19104	PHILADELPHIA	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	001	1	8/2/2022	NEW	$0
2022	2022	TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, THE	3451 WALNUT ST STE 440A	PHILADELPHIA	PA	19104	PHILADELPHIA	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	1	8/1/2022	NEW	$192,824
														Subtotal = $192,824

Grand Total All Awards = $955,633

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Poverty, Mental Bandwidth, and an Unconditional Cash Transfer Intervention to Enable Health Behaviors for Pregnant People with HIV

Award Number: K23MH131464

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: TRAINING/TRAINEESHIP

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 08/01/2022

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 07/31/2025

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer