Mobilizing individual social capital resources for HIV care support: results of a pilot intervention in St. Petersburg, Russia

ABSTRACT

Half of HIV-positive persons in Russia are on antiretroviral therapy (ART), and only 27% are virally suppressed. A feasibility pilot intervention to mobilize social capital resources for HIV care support was conducted in St. Petersburg. Out-of-care or ART-nonadherent HIV-positive persons (n = 24) attended a five-session intervention to increase access social capital resources (i.e., family, friends, or providers) to mobilize supports for entering care, initiating care, and adhering to ART. HIV care indicators were assessed at baseline, an immediate followup (FU-1), and 6-month followup (FU-2) points. At FU-1, participants more frequently discussed their care experiences with others, verifying the intervention’s mechanism of action. Participants increased in scales of medication taking adherence (p = 0.002, FU-1; p = 0.011, FU-2), self-efficacy (p = 0.042; FU-1), and outcome expectancies (p = 0.016, FU-2). Among persons not on ART, HIV Medication Readiness scale scores increased at FU-1 (p = 0.032) but became attenuated at FU-2. Participants tended to more frequently keep care appointments (79%, baseline to 90%, FU-1, p = 0.077); to have undetectable viral load (54%, baseline to 74%, FU-2; p = 0.063); and to have fewer past-month days with delayed or incomplete medication doses (7.8, baseline to 4.2, FU-1; p = 0.084). This novel social capital intervention is promising for improving HIV care-related outcomes and warrants a full-scale evaluation.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV care engagement
• intervention
• Russia
• social capital
• social networks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health [grants 5R01MH098729-05, 5R01MH113555-03, and 5P30MH52776-24] and Russian Foundation for Basic Research [grant 17-56-30026]. The authors extend their appreciation to Anastasia Amirkhanian, Anastasia Meylakhs, Dmitry Mescheryakov, Larisa Glyzhina, Maria Donskaya, and Rudolph Amirkhanian, and the study participants.