OUR APPROACH
EMPOWERING CHOICE
To optimize the impact of health technologies for HIV prevention in low- and middle-income countries, it is imperative that we consider the needs, preferences, and behaviours of end-users, policy makers, and health care providers in the early stages of their development. UPTAKE aims to accelerate access and facilitate adherence to effective and innovative biomedical products by informing the development of novel long-acting (LA) HIV prevention products, including formulation, device, delivery, and packaging decisions. The findings from this study will be used to enable the licensure of better suited multi-purpose technologies to prevent both HIV and unintended pregnancy among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) and female sex workers (FSWs) in sub-Saharan Africa.
REAL-WORLD IMPACT
By integrating health care providers and policy-makers, the UPTAKE study represents a novel model in global health innovation. UPTAKE will impact health policy, healthcare services, and social behaviors through robust evidence that supports policy-influencing strategies to promote adoption and institutionalization of biomedical health products. Furthermore, UPTAKE will contribute to strengthened capacity for implementing socio-behavioral interventions and formative research in sub-Saharan Africa.
INNOVATIVE APPROACH
The UPTAKE consortium is a multidisciplinary group of leading experts in socio-behavioral research, health economics, and HIV prevention research. UPTAKE utilizes behavioral research approaches with behaviourally vulnerable AGYW and FSWs, health care providers (HCPs), and policy makers (PMs).
This multi-staged study will determine and test behavioral factors that facilitate adoption and use of future LA-PrEP alone or in combination with marketed LA contraceptives in Kenya and Uganda. Researchers will also assess the cost-effectiveness of these interventions using a health economics model developed collaboratively between the Busara Center for Behavioural Economics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSTHM).
3.
1.
Understand the factors that promote or prevent the adoption and continued use of future injectable and implantable products for HIV prevention including long-acting pre-exposure prophylaxis (LA-PrEP) and products designed to address more than one sexual reproductive health concern simultaneously (multipurpose prevention technologies).
To measure the level to which LA-PrEP is preferred and how this preference may vary across different users.
2.
Design interventions and test their impact on promoting continued use of long-acting marketed contraceptive products among AGYW as well as FSWs. These would serve as models for adherence to LA-PrEP.
4.
Estimate cost and cost-effectiveness of LA-PrEP products and interventions that could be provided as part of a suite of self-care sexual and reproductive health products.