RESEARCH ARTICLE
Beyond HIV-serodiscordance: Partnership communication dynamics that affect engagement in safer conception care Lynn T. Matthews1,2*, Bridget F. Burns1, Francis Bajunirwe3, Jerome Kabakyenga3, Mwebesa Bwana3, Courtney Ng4, Jasmine Kastner5, Annet Kembabazi3, Naomi Sanyu3, Adrine Kusasira3, Jessica E. Haberer1,6, David R. Bangsberg7, Angela Kaida8
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1 Center for Global Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States of America, 2 Division of Infectious Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States of America, 3 Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Mbarara, Uganda, 4 Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States of America, 5 Research Institute McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada, 6 Division of General Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States of America, 7 OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, Portland, OR, United States of America, 8 Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada * [email protected]
OPEN ACCESS Citation: Matthews LT, Burns BF, Bajunirwe F, Kabakyenga J, Bwana M, Ng C, et al. (2017) Beyond HIV-serodiscordance: Partnership communication dynamics that affect engagement in safer conception care. PLoS ONE 12(9): e0183131. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0183131 Editor: Matt A. Price, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, UNITED STATES Received: March 5, 2017 Accepted: July 31, 2017 Published: September 7, 2017 Copyright: © 2017 Matthews et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: In the informed consent approved by the ethics committees, participants did not give consent for full transcripts to be shared. In order to share transcripts, they will first have to be redacted. Data requests can be submitted to the corresponding author for this manuscript ([email protected]). Funding: This study was funded by NIH/NICHD R21-HD069194 (Kaida), NIH/NIMH R01-MH54907 (Bangsberg), and the Canada Sub-Saharan Africa
Abstract Introduction We explored acceptability and feasibility of safer conception methods among HIV-affected couples in Uganda.
Methods We recruited HIV-positive men and women on antiretroviral therapy (ART) (‘index’) from the Uganda Antiretroviral Rural Treatment Outcomes cohort who reported an HIV-negative or unknown-serostatus partner (‘partner’), HIV-serostatus disclosure to partner, and personal or partner desire for a child within two years. We conducted in-depth interviews with 40 individuals from 20 couples, using a narrative approach with tailored images to assess acceptability of five safer conception strategies: ART for the infected partner, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for the uninfected partner, condomless sex timed to peak fertility, manual insemination, and male circumcision. Translated and transcribed data were analyzed using thematic analysis.
Results 11/20 index participants were women, median age of 32.5 years, median of 2 living children, and 80% had HIV-RNA
Beyond HIV-serodiscordance: Partnership communication dynamics that affect engagement in safer conception care Lynn T. Matthews1,2*, Bridget F. Burns1, Francis Bajunirwe3, Jerome Kabakyenga3, Mwebesa Bwana3, Courtney Ng4, Jasmine Kastner5, Annet Kembabazi3, Naomi Sanyu3, Adrine Kusasira3, Jessica E. Haberer1,6, David R. Bangsberg7, Angela Kaida8
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1 Center for Global Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States of America, 2 Division of Infectious Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States of America, 3 Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Mbarara, Uganda, 4 Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States of America, 5 Research Institute McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada, 6 Division of General Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States of America, 7 OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, Portland, OR, United States of America, 8 Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada * [email protected]
OPEN ACCESS Citation: Matthews LT, Burns BF, Bajunirwe F, Kabakyenga J, Bwana M, Ng C, et al. (2017) Beyond HIV-serodiscordance: Partnership communication dynamics that affect engagement in safer conception care. PLoS ONE 12(9): e0183131. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0183131 Editor: Matt A. Price, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, UNITED STATES Received: March 5, 2017 Accepted: July 31, 2017 Published: September 7, 2017 Copyright: © 2017 Matthews et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: In the informed consent approved by the ethics committees, participants did not give consent for full transcripts to be shared. In order to share transcripts, they will first have to be redacted. Data requests can be submitted to the corresponding author for this manuscript ([email protected]). Funding: This study was funded by NIH/NICHD R21-HD069194 (Kaida), NIH/NIMH R01-MH54907 (Bangsberg), and the Canada Sub-Saharan Africa
Abstract Introduction We explored acceptability and feasibility of safer conception methods among HIV-affected couples in Uganda.
Methods We recruited HIV-positive men and women on antiretroviral therapy (ART) (‘index’) from the Uganda Antiretroviral Rural Treatment Outcomes cohort who reported an HIV-negative or unknown-serostatus partner (‘partner’), HIV-serostatus disclosure to partner, and personal or partner desire for a child within two years. We conducted in-depth interviews with 40 individuals from 20 couples, using a narrative approach with tailored images to assess acceptability of five safer conception strategies: ART for the infected partner, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for the uninfected partner, condomless sex timed to peak fertility, manual insemination, and male circumcision. Translated and transcribed data were analyzed using thematic analysis.
Results 11/20 index participants were women, median age of 32.5 years, median of 2 living children, and 80% had HIV-RNA
