Conditional Cash Transfers to Increase Uptake of and Retention of PMTCT Services

Conditional Cash Transfers to Increase Uptake of and Retention of PMTCT Services

The goals of the proposed study are to: 1) test whether small, increasing cash payments to HIV-infected pregnant women, on the condition that they attend scheduled clinic visits and receive proposed services, will increase the proportion of women who receive the most effective antiretroviral regimen they are eligible for by the time of delivery, and 2) elucidate factors that facilitate or inhibit the uptake and adherence to the PMTCT cascade, and to what extent the conditional cash payment program addresses these factors.

This intervention will be implemented and evaluated within our well-established PMTCT program in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),

Inclusion Criteria:

• Newly diagnosed as HIV-positive
• Pregnant between 28 and 32 weeks of gestation (>27 and <32 completed weeks of pregnancy)
• Intend to stay in Kinshasa through delivery and six weeks postpartum
• Able and willing to participate (provide informed consent)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Women will be excluded from the study if they are severely ill and require extended hospitalization or need to be cared for at a referral hospital out of the PMTCT network