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A social media mHealth intervention to improve retention in care for adolescents and young adults with HIV in Uganda

Award Number: K43TW012640
ORGANIZATION: FOGARTY INTERNATIONAL CENTER
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/15/2023
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2028

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A social media mHealth intervention to improve retention in care for adolescents and young adults with HIV in Uganda - Adolescents and young adults with HIV (AYWH) have poor retention in care with only about 50% remaining engaged in care 12 months after initiating treatment. The core challenges AYWH face in sustaining care are shared globally, including stigma, mental health challenges, developmental transitions, and poor social support, leading to poor outcomes. Existing interventions to retain AYWH in care have had limited success in part because they do not address developmental stage, route of infection and social context. Mobile health (mHealth) approaches, delivered through social media platforms, offer a scalable strategy to improve retention in care for AYWH in rural and underserved settings worldwide. Candidate: The goal of this K43 Emerging Global Leader Award is to support Dr. Julian Adong’s development as an independent clinician-scientist focused on improving HIV outcomes among AYWH through training in: 1) Qualitative and mixed methods research; 2) Behavioral science relevant to AYWH, and 3) Statistical methods for clinical trials. Research: The proposed research will develop and test a social media–based mHealth intervention tailored to AYWH to improve retention in HIV care. Aim 1 will examine HIV knowledge gaps, experiences, and barriers to care among AYWH who are new to or re-engaging in care. These factors will be characterized by developmental stage and route of infection. Aim 2 will iteratively develop the intervention with AYWH and clinic counselors. Aim 3 will evaluate feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness in a pilot wait-list controlled trial. Foreign justification: Uganda is uniquely suited for this work because it has a larger and more concentrated population of AYWH actively entering and re-engaging in care compared to the U.S., allowing efficient recruitment of participants with diverse developmental, behavioral, and social challenges within established HIV treatment programs. Conducting a comparable study in the U.S. would be substantially more difficult because AYWH are more geographically dispersed across fragmented healthcare systems, limiting efficient recruitment and iterative intervention development. Carrying out this study in Uganda offers a scientifically advantageous and cost-efficient strategy to rapidly develop and refine interventions for AYWH at the highest risk of disengagement from care in the U.S. and globally. Benefit to American health: AYWH in rural and underserved U.S. communities experience the same overarching challenges to retention in care as AYWH globally, making findings from this work directly relevant to the health of Americans. Scalable mHealth strategies developed through this project will thus play an important role in informing interventions to improve HIV care engagement for vulnerable American youth. Innovation: This study is innovative in its focus on neurodevelopmental stage and route of infection as drivers of retention in care and in leveraging widely used digital platform to deliver tailored support to AYWH. Future directions: By the end of the award, Dr. Adong will be well-positioned to lead independent researcher evaluating scalable mHealth interventions to improve health outcomes among AYWH in the U.S. and globally.


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 = $100,510 )
2026	2026	MBARARA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY	PLOT 8-18 KABALE ROAD	MBARARA				UGA	International Research and Research Training	000	4	6/19/2026	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$100,510
														Subtotal = $100,510

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $100,478 )
2025	2025	MBARARA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY	PLOT 8-18 KABALE ROAD	MBARARA				UGA	International Research and Research Training	000	3	6/30/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$100,478
														Subtotal = $100,478

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $100,478 )
2024	2024	MBARARA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY	PLOT 8-18 KABALE ROAD	MBARARA				UGA	International Research and Research Training	001	2	7/2/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$100,478
2024	2023	MBARARA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY	PLOT 8-18 KABALE ROAD	MBARARA				UGA	International Research and Research Training	000	1	7/2/2024	NEW	$0
														Subtotal = $100,478

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $100,402 )
2023	2023	MBARARA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY	KABALE ROAD	MBARARA				UGA	International Research and Research Training	000	1	7/21/2023	NEW	$100,402
2023	2023	MBARARA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY	KABALE ROAD	MBARARA				UGA	International Research and Research Training	001	1	7/28/2023	NEW	$0
														Subtotal = $100,402

Grand Total All Awards = $401,868

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A social media mHealth intervention to improve retention in care for adolescents and young adults with HIV in Uganda

Award Number: K43TW012640

ORGANIZATION: FOGARTY INTERNATIONAL CENTER

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/15/2023

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2028

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