Evaluating the effectiveness of incentives to improve HIV prevention outcomes for young females in Eswatini: Sitakhela L
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Evaluating the effectiveness of incentives to improve HIV prevention outcomes for young females in Eswatini: Sitakhela Likusasa impact evaluation protocol and baseline results Marelize Gorgens1, Andrew F. Longosz1*, Sosthenes Ketende1, Muziwethu Nkambule2, Tengetile Dlamini2, Mbuso Mabuza2, Kelvin Sikwibele3, Vimbai Tsododo3, Mthokozisi Dlamini3, Futhie Dennis-Langa4, Wendy Heard1, Andrea Low4, Pandu Harimurti1, David Wilson1, Khanya Mabuza2 and Damien de Walque1
Abstract Background: Eswatini continues to have the highest prevalence of HIV in the world, and one of the highest HIV incidences among adult populations (aged 15–49). This analysis reports on both key elements of study design/ protocol and baseline results from an impact evaluation of an intervention incentivizing (i) initiation, enrolment, attendance or completion of some form of education, and (ii) lower risk sexual behaviour. Methods: The impact evaluation employs a two by two factorial design in which participants are enrolled in either the incentive for education arm (‘education treatment arm’ providing a conditional cash incentive) or the control arm (‘education control arm’). In each of these arms, 50% of participants were randomized to also be eligible for selection – three times a year – to participate in a conditional raffle conditional on testing negative for curable STIs (syphilis and Trichomonas vaginalis). Results: Baseline recruitment and screening occurred in 2016 when a total of 6055 individuals were screened of which 4863 participated in the baseline survey, and 4819 individuals were randomized into one of the study arms. The baseline prevalence of HIV, Trichomonas vaginalis, and syphilis among adolescent girls and young women 8.20% (397/4840), 3.31% (150/4533) and 0.17% (8/4830) respectively. Conclusions: An educational cash incentive and raffle incentive impact evaluation that addresses adolescent girls and young women who are in-education and out-of-education has the potential to reduce HIV risk in adolescent girls and young women in Eswatini. Trial registration: Name of the registry: Pan African Clinical Trials Registry. Trial registration number: PACTR201811609257043. Date of registration: May 11, 2018 ‘Retrospectively registered’. (Continued on next page)
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 The World Bank Group, 1776 G Street, Washington, DC 20006, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included
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