Clinic-Based Pediatric Disclosure Intervention Trial Improves Pediatric HIV Status Disclosure in Ghana

BACKGROUND:Disclosing HIV status to HIV-positive children is a major challenge facing families and health care providers. Despite recommendations for disclosure, rates remain low. We tested whether a pediatric HIV disclosure intervention delivered as an integral component of routine HIV health care in Ghana would improve disclosure to children. METHODS:Dyads of HIV-infected children aged 7–18 years and their caregivers were enrolled from 2 HIV clinics in Accra and Kumasi, Ghana. The sites were randomly assigned to one of the 2 intervention arms to avoid treatment contamination between intervention and control participants. Trained interventionist used theory-guided therapeutic communication and personalized interaction to promote disclosure. Disclosure outcomes were measured at 12-week intervals. All analyses were completed using a modified intention-to-treat approach. RESULTS:We enrolled 446 child–caregiver dyads (N = 240 intervention group; N = 206 control group); 52% of the children were boys, mean age 9.78 (±2.27) years. For disclosure at 1 year, a better overall treatment effect was observed (P < 0.001). Children in the treatment group had greater disclosure at each time point (P < 0.001) and a higher proportion of them had been disclosed to by 1 year (51.4% vs. 16.2%; P < 0.001; un-adjusted hazard ratio = 3.9895% confidence interval2.63 to 6.03) and 3 years (71.3% vs. 34.0%; unadjusted hazard ratio = 4.2195% confidence interval3.09 to 5.72). In the multivariate Cox model, factors associated with disclosure were treatment group (P < 0.001), children