Schooling, Income, and HIV Risk in Malawi

HIV Clinical Trial

— SIHR  

Official title:

Does Schooling Protect Young Women From HIV?

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Active, not recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT01333826
• Other study ID #: KCP: RF-P109215-RESE-TF090932
• Secondary ID: RSB: RF-P109215-
• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: September 2007
• Est. completion date: May 2025

Study information

• Verified date: August 2023
• Source: George Washington University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This study is designed to evaluate a two-year randomized intervention in Malawi that provides cash transfers to current schoolgirls (and young women who have recently dropped out of school) to stay in (and return to) school in order to understand the possible effects of such programs on the sexual behavior of the beneficiaries and their subsequent HIV risk.

Description:

Motivation:

Education has been suggested as a "social vaccine" to prevent the spread of HIV (Jukes, Simmons, and Bundy, 2008), but almost all of the evidence we have on the link between school attendance (or attainment) and the risk of HIV infection comes from cross-sectional studies. Furthermore, the role of income (especially that of women's poverty) has been hypothesized as a significant factor in the spread of HIV in SSA, but again there is no credible evidence showing a causal link between income and HIV risk. A randomized intervention, such as the one proposed here, that provides randomly varied amounts of cash transfers to young individuals and their guardians is the perfect setting to examine the possible existence of such causal relationships.

Objectives:

The objective of the proposed study here is to provide credible evidence on issues about which we still know very little. Specifically, the main questions the study will try to answer are the following:

1. Are the observed effects of a CCT associated with the transfer or the conditionality imposed on the recipient?

2. Do the outcomes of interest improve with increased benefit levels set by the program?

3. Do CCT programs for schooling have any positive health impacts, including prevention of STIs such as HIV/AIDS among young people?

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Enrollment: 3796
• Est. completion date: May 2025
• Est. primary completion date: September 2012
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: Female
• Age group: 13 Years to 22 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• female

• 13-22 years old

• never married

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Conditional Cash Transfers
• HIV
• Schooling
• Unconditional Cash Transfers

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Zomba Cash Transfer Program
Cash transfers were provided monthly to a randomly selected sample of school aged girls. Amounts were also varied in both treatment arms.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Malawi	Zomba District, Malawi	Zomba

Sponsors (4)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
George Washington University	University of California, San Diego, University of Malawi, World Bank

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Malawi, 

References & Publications (1)

Baird S, Chirwa E, McIntosh C, Ozler B. The short-term impacts of a schooling conditional cash transfer program on the sexual behavior of young women. Health Econ. 2010 Sep;19 Suppl:55-68. doi: 10.1002/hec.1569. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Sexually Transmitted Infections	HIV prevalence HSV-2 prevalence	18 months
Primary	Schooling	school enrollment	12 months/24 months
Secondary	Sexually Transmitted Infections	syphilis	18 months
Secondary	Marriage and fertility	ever married currently pregnant	12 months/24 months
Secondary	sexual behavior	new sexual debut unprotected sexual intercourse weekly sexual intercourse had a sexual partner 25 or older	12 months/ 24 months
Secondary	HIV Awareness	ever tested for HIV received health training on HIV HIV knowledge	12 months/24 months