A Randomized Trial of ImpACT+, a Coping Intervention for HIV Infected Women With Sexual Trauma in South Africa

HIV Clinical Trial

— ImpACT+  

Official title:

Project Someleze: A Randomized Trial of ImpACT+, a Coping Intervention to Improve Clinical and Mental Health Outcomes Among HIV-infected Women With Sexual Trauma in South Africa

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04793217
• Other study ID #: AAAS3667
• Secondary ID: 1R01MH118004
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: February 18, 2021
• Est. completion date: May 30, 2026

Study information

• Verified date: February 2024
• Source: Columbia University
• Contact: Kathleen J Sikkema, PhD
• Phone: 212-305-8236
• Email: ks3364[@]cumc.columbia.edu
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

ImpACT+ (Improving AIDS Care after Trauma+), is an individual-level coping intervention to address traumatic stress and HIV care engagement among South African women with sexual trauma histories. We propose a full-scale randomized controlled trial to examine the effect of ImpACT+ on clinical outcomes in the period after ART initiation and to understand mental health and behavioral mechanisms through which viral suppression can be achieved. ImpACT+ will target women who are initiating ART in order to take advantage of a window of opportunity in HIV care and maximize care engagement. The aims are to test the effectiveness of ImpACT+ and explore its potential for implementation.

Description:

Addressing sexual trauma in the context of HIV care is essential to improve clinical outcomes and mental health among women in South Africa. Women represent nearly two-thirds of the South African HIV epidemic, and they report disproportionately high rates of sexual trauma, which negatively impacts their mental health and may lead to avoidant coping behaviors. The psychological sequaelae of trauma can adversely impact retention in HIV care and adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART), which may in turn reduce viral suppression and increase the risk of HIV transmission to others. HIV care engagement may be particularly challenging in South Africa, where women face dual epidemics of HIV and sexual violence, with limited access to mental health treatment. In this setting, interventions that address barriers to effective HIV care engagement and improve health outcomes across the care continuum are urgently needed. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of ImpACT+ (Improving AIDS Care after Trauma+), an individual-level intervention based on theories of stress and coping, on clinical outcomes among HIV-infected women with sexual trauma. Secondary objectives include determining whether reductions in traumatic stress and avoidant coping mediate intervention effects on clinical outcomes, and assessing potential for scalability and full-scale implementation. ImpACT+ was developed and culturally adapted to the South African context, targeting women who are initiating ART (classified clinically as naïve initiators, restarters or defaulters) to make use of a window of opportunity in HIV care and maximize impact on care engagement. The proposed five-year study seeks to rigorously evaluate ImpACT+, using a hybrid effectiveness-implementation design (Hybrid Type I), with three specific aims: (1) evaluate the effectiveness of ImpACT+ on viral suppression, ART adherence, and HIV care engagement; (2) assess the degree to which reductions in PTSD symptoms and avoidant coping mediate intervention effects; and (3) explore potential for scalability and full-scale implementation. The trial will enroll 350 women who have initiated ART and have a history of sexual trauma and elevated traumatic stress. Participants will be randomized to the ImpACT+ intervention condition (six weekly sessions, with six maintenance check-ins over the 12-month follow-up period) or the control condition (three weekly sessions of Problem Solving Therapy (PST)). All participants will complete a baseline assessment at enrollment (within four months of initiating ART), with additional behavioral assessments and viral load testing at 4-month, 8-month, and 12-month follow-up. ART adherence will also be assessed using dried blood spot (DBS) biomarkers, and care engagement data will be extracted from medical records at the end of the study period. This study is one of the first full-scale trials of a trauma-informed intervention on clinical outcomes for HIV-infected women. If effective, ImpACT+ will fill a critical void in evidence-based trauma interventions in this setting and combat the drop-off across the HIV continuum of care in South Africa, as well as inform such approaches in the U.S. and globally.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 350
• Est. completion date: May 30, 2026
• Est. primary completion date: May 30, 2025
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: Female
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Women with HIV who receive care at either study clinic

• >2 weeks to <4 months since ART initiation

• History of sexual trauma

• Meets criteria for traumatic stress

• Xhosa speaking

Exclusion Criteria:

• High suicide risk

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• HIV
• Trauma Exposure
• Wounds and Injuries

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Improving AIDS Care After Trauma +
ImpACT+ integrates skills for HIV treatment adherence and coping with trauma, tailored to the South African context. This includes exploration of values informing care engagement, recognizing the synergistic stress of sexual trauma and HIV, understanding the contribution of stressors to maladaptive coping, and developing adaptive methods for coping as alternatives to avoidance. ImpACT+ will be delivered in private spaces at the primary care clinic and will consist of 6 individual sessions followed by 6 maintenance check-ins. Individual sessions focus on coping, adherence, and care engagement during an early critical period, while maintenance check-ins reinforce positive change and support ongoing implementation of skills. Evidence supports a 6-session format in low-resource settings. Individual sessions will begin within 2 weeks after the baseline survey and be completed by the 4-month assessment. Maintenance check-ins will begin following the 4-month assessment.
• Adapted Problem-Solving Therapy
Participants will receive three weekly individual sessions of adapted PST. The goal of PST is to identify problems that interfere with daily activities and address them through problem-orientation work. We anticipate stressors will include (a) relationship difficulties, including family stress, (b) financial stress and unemployment, (c) general impact of HIV infection, and (d) overall chronic stress. Thus, PST may indirectly address stressors that may impact care engagement, but will not address the intersection of HIV and trauma specifically.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
South Africa	University of Cape Town	Cape Town

Sponsors (3)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Columbia University	National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), University of Cape Town

Country where clinical trial is conducted

South Africa, 

References & Publications (13)

Blevins CA, Weathers FW, Davis MT, Witte TK, Domino JL. The Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5): Development and Initial Psychometric Evaluation. J Trauma Stress. 2015 Dec;28(6):489-98. doi: 10.1002/jts.22059. Epub 2015 Nov 25. — View Citation

Carver CS. You want to measure coping but your protocol's too long: consider the brief COPE. Int J Behav Med. 1997;4(1):92-100. doi: 10.1207/s15327558ijbm0401_6. — View Citation

Folkman S, Lazarus RS. The relationship between coping and emotion: implications for theory and research. Soc Sci Med. 1988;26(3):309-17. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(88)90395-4. — View Citation

Hansen NB, Harrison B, Fambro S, Bodnar S, Heckman TG, Sikkema KJ. The structure of coping among older adults living with HIV/AIDS and depressive symptoms. J Health Psychol. 2013 Feb;18(2):198-211. doi: 10.1177/1359105312440299. Epub 2012 Mar 27. — View Citation

Knettel BA, Mulawa MI, Knippler ET, Ciya N, Robertson C, Joska JA, Sikkema KJ. Women's perspectives on ImpACT: a coping intervention to address sexual trauma and improve HIV care engagement in Cape Town, South Africa. AIDS Care. 2019 Nov;31(11):1389-1396. doi: 10.1080/09540121.2019.1587368. Epub 2019 Mar 1. — View Citation

Knettel BA, Robertson C, Ciya N, Coleman JN, Elliott SA, Joska JA, Sikkema KJ. "I cannot change what happened to me, but I can learn to change how I feel": A case study from ImpACT, an intervention for women with a history of sexual trauma who are living with HIV in Cape Town, South Africa. Psychotherapy (Chic). 2020 Mar;57(1):90-96. doi: 10.1037/pst0000263. Epub 2019 Dec 19. — View Citation

Meade CS, Kershaw TS, Hansen NB, Sikkema KJ. Long-term correlates of childhood abuse among adults with severe mental illness: adult victimization, substance abuse, and HIV sexual risk behavior. AIDS Behav. 2009 Apr;13(2):207-16. doi: 10.1007/s10461-007-9326-4. Epub 2007 Oct 30. — View Citation

Namir S, Wolcott DL, Fawzy FI, Alumbaugh MJ. Coping with AIDS: Psychological and health implications. J Appl Soc Psychol. 1987;17(3):309-328. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1987.tb00316.x

Sikkema KJ, Choi KW, Robertson C, Knettel BA, Ciya N, Knippler ET, Watt MH, Joska JA. Development of a coping intervention to improve traumatic stress and HIV care engagement among South African women with sexual trauma histories. Eval Program Plann. 2018 Jun;68:148-156. doi: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2018.02.007. Epub 2018 Mar 6. — View Citation

Sikkema KJ, Mulawa MI, Robertson C, Watt MH, Ciya N, Stein DJ, Cherenack EM, Choi KW, Kombora M, Joska JA. Improving AIDS Care After Trauma (ImpACT): Pilot Outcomes of a Coping intervention Among HIV-Infected Women with Sexual Trauma in South Africa. AIDS Behav. 2018 Mar;22(3):1039-1052. doi: 10.1007/s10461-017-2013-1. — View Citation

Sikkema KJ, Ranby KW, Meade CS, Hansen NB, Wilson PA, Kochman A. Reductions in traumatic stress following a coping intervention were mediated by decreases in avoidant coping for people living with HIV/AIDS and childhood sexual abuse. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2013 Apr;81(2):274-83. doi: 10.1037/a0030144. Epub 2012 Oct 1. — View Citation

Sikkema KJ, Wilson PA, Hansen NB, Kochman A, Neufeld S, Ghebremichael MS, Kershaw T. Effects of a coping intervention on transmission risk behavior among people living with HIV/AIDS and a history of childhood sexual abuse. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2008 Apr 1;47(4):506-13. doi: 10.1097/QAI.0b013e318160d727. Erratum In: J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2010 Oct 1;55(2):286. — View Citation

Watt MH, Dennis AC, Choi KW, Ciya N, Joska JA, Robertson C, Sikkema KJ. Impact of Sexual Trauma on HIV Care Engagement: Perspectives of Female Patients with Trauma Histories in Cape Town, South Africa. AIDS Behav. 2017 Nov;21(11):3209-3218. doi: 10.1007/s10461-016-1617-1. — View Citation

* Note: There are 13 references in all — Click here to view all references

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Other	Coping Strategies Scale Score	Self report, measured by Coping Strategies scale (Sikkema et al., 2018; based on Carver, 1997; Folkman & Lazarus, 1988; Hansen et al., 2013; Namir et al., 1987). Coping will be assessed using 41 items that were previously used to measure coping in Sub-Saharan Africa or among HIV-infected individuals. Participants will be asked how often they used these strategies in the past month to help deal with their HIV illness (1 = not at all to 4 = most of the time).	Up to 12 months
Other	Traumatic Stress Score	Self report, measured by PTSD Checklist-Civilian version for the The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; Blevins CA, Weathers FW, Davis MT, Witte TK, and Domino JKL, 2015). PCL-5 [51], a 20-item self-report questionnaire, will assess severity of symptoms that parallel DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Participants will be asked to indicate the extent to which they were bothered by problems experienced in the past month in relation to a traumatic experience of abuse or act of violence (0 = not at all to 4 = extremely).	Up to 12 months
Primary	Viral suppression/viral load	HIV-1 RNA viral load (COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HIV-1 Test, v2.0, Roche). Viral suppression defined as <50 copies/ml. Continuous measures of viral load, modeled using a log10 transformation.	Up to 12 months
Secondary	HIV Care Engagement- Number of Missed Visits	The number of missed visits as determined by medical record review.	Up to 12 months
Secondary	HIV Care Engagement- Visit Adherence	Visit adherence defined as the number of scheduled visits attended.	Up to 12 months
Secondary	HIV Care Engagement- Gaps in Care	Gaps in care defined as whether >90 days have elapse between visits, as determined by medical record abstraction.	Up to 12 months
Secondary	HIV Care Engagement- Visit Constancy	Visit constancy defined as the number of 90-day intervals with >1 completed visit, determined by medical record abstraction.	Up to 12 months
Secondary	ART Adherence - Dried Blood Spots	Dried blood spots measuring levels of tenofovir-diphosphate, dichotomized as adherent or non-adherent.	Up to 12 months
Secondary	ART Adherence - Pharmacy Visits	ART adherence as defined by the number of pharmacy visits. Determined through medical record abstraction.	Up to 12 months
Secondary	ART Adherence - Pharmacy Refill	ART adherence as defined by pharmacy refill data. Determined through medical record abstraction.	Up to 12 months