Rise Consortium

PROJECT 3

BACKGROUND

Two-thirds of all children in Eastern and Southern Africa are at risk of failing to reach their full developmental potential, and the risk for suboptimal development may be higher among children who are HIV-exposed but uninfected (children HEU), a population that accounts for a large proportion of children under five in these regions. There is a critical need for implementation guidance to maximize the impact of effective screening methods to address neurodevelopmental (ND) delay in high HIV prevalence settings. Context-specific factors may impact how screening and referral services can be feasibly integrated into clinical programs. This study seeks to evaluate the implementation outcomes of two ND screening approaches, chosen by in-country expert stakeholders, in routine clinic settings in high HIV prevalence regions.

OBJECTIVES

Our objective is to evaluate the implementation outcomes and cost of using two neurodevelopmental screening approaches in Maternal Child Health/Child Welfare clinics in high HIV prevalence regions in Botswana and Kenya. To accomplish this, the IMPLEMENT study will:

1) Adapt and validate a new risk score tool to identify children at high risk for ND delays in regions with high HIV prevalence

2) Pilot test two ND screening methods within routine child health visits and measure screening coverage, implementation outcomes, usability, and cost. The new risk score tool may be one of the ND screening methods chosen by stakeholders for pilot testing. Implementation outcomes and usability will be assessed using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and surveys with healthcare workers and child caregivers

STUDY TEAM

MULTIPLE PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR AND SENIOR ADVISOR