WelTel Retain: Promoting Engagement in Pre-ART HIV Care Through SMS
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ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01630304 |
Recruitment Status
: Unknown
Verified December 2015 by University of British Columbia.
Recruitment status was: Active, not recruiting
First Posted
: June 28, 2012
Last Update Posted
: December 18, 2015
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Condition or disease | Intervention/treatment | Phase |
---|---|---|
HIV | Behavioral: WelTel SMS service | Not Applicable |
Study Type : | Interventional (Clinical Trial) |
Actual Enrollment : | 700 participants |
Allocation: | Randomized |
Intervention Model: | Parallel Assignment |
Masking: | None (Open Label) |
Primary Purpose: | Supportive Care |
Official Title: | WelTel Retain: Promoting Engagement in Pre-ART HIV Care Through SMS |
Study Start Date : | January 2013 |
Estimated Primary Completion Date : | September 2016 |
Estimated Study Completion Date : | September 2016 |

Arm | Intervention/treatment |
---|---|
Experimental: WelTel SMS service
In addition to standard care, weekly text messages will be delivered to participants randomized to this arm for a one year period. Participants will be requested to respond to the outgoing message "Mambo?" within 48 hours; they may respond that they are doing well (sawa) or that they have a problem (shida). A clinician will call to follow-up with all participants who respond indicating a problem or who do not respond within 48 hours.
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Behavioral: WelTel SMS service
Weekly text message "Mambo?" ("How are you?") to which participants are required to respond either "Shida" (problem) or "Sawa" (OK) within 48 hours. Shida responses and participants who do not respond are called by a clinician.
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No Intervention: Standard care
This arm will receive standard clinical care.
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- Patient retention in care [ Time Frame: 12 months ]
- First ART eligibility assessment [ Time Frame: 3 weeks ]Proportion of patients completing 1st eligibility assessment within 3 weeks
- Enrolment in HIV care and treatment program [ Time Frame: 2 months ]Proportion of patients who complete counselling sessions (3) and are eligible to enrol in the HIV care and treatment program

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Ages Eligible for Study: | 18 Years and older (Adult, Senior) |
Sexes Eligible for Study: | All |
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: | No |
Inclusion Criteria:
- evidence of HIV infection
- newly enrolling at the Kibera Community Health Centre
- own or have sufficient access to a cell phone; able to operate a cell phone using simple text-messaging*
- able and willing to provide informed assent/consent to participate *If a participant does not own a phone but has sufficient access to a cell phone (through a partner, relative, etc.), the participant would be able to either 1) use the accessed phone to respond to the text messages themselves; or, if they are unable to text themselves 2) have their partner, relative etc. respond on their behalf.
Exclusion Criteria:
- individuals will be excluded if they do not meet all of the inclusion criteria.
- individuals transferring from other clinics who are already taking ART will also be excluded.

To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT01630304
Kenya | |
Kibera Community Health Centre | |
Nairobi, Kenya |
Principal Investigator: | Richard T Lester, MD | University of British Columbia |
Publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):
Responsible Party: | University of British Columbia |
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: | NCT01630304 History of Changes |
Other Study ID Numbers: |
H12-00563 R01MH097558 ( U.S. NIH Grant/Contract ) |
First Posted: | June 28, 2012 Key Record Dates |
Last Update Posted: | December 18, 2015 |
Last Verified: | December 2015 |
Keywords provided by University of British Columbia:
telecommunications Africa randomized controlled trial |