SALDRU Seminar

Presenter: Brendan Maughan-Brown
Date: 30 October 2024
Time: 13:00-14:00
Venue: Seminar Room, Level 4, School of Economics Building

(light lunch served from 12:30 in adjacent staff lounge)
Format: In-person

Please RSVP for catering purposes by Friday 25 October.

Dear colleagues,

Our final seminar of October will be presented by Brendan Maughan-Brown. We hope to see you there.

Abstract

Despite universal access to free antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV, high rates of AIDS-related mortality and HIV incidence persist due to delayed ART uptake. The largest gaps in ART coverage are found among men. Furthermore, many newly diagnosed men delay starting ART despite knowing it is effective in slowing disease progression and reducing transmission risk.  Instead, their decisions are influenced by numerous psychosocial barriers to ART initiation that are triggered by a positive HIV diagnosis. SALDRU led the development of the ‘From Now On’ video-based intervention that aimed to mitigate psychosocial barriers and leverage behavioural economic principles to encourage HIV treatment uptake. This seminar shares findings on the perceived impact, acceptability and feasibility of the intervention, as delivered during post-test HIV counselling at mobile clinics in Cape Town operated by the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation. Insights from in-depth interviews with men living with HIV and HIV counsellors indicate that the video instilled ART as giving hope and the means to live a normal life, thus reframing the mental model of life on ART and increasing motivation for treatment. Findings suggest multiple potential pathways through which the intervention could improve well-being and increase HIV treatment uptake, including: alleviating immediate shock from the HIV diagnosis, countering internalised stigma, encouraging HIV status disclosure, reducing fear and increasing hope.

Brief presenter bio

Dr Brendan Maughan-Brown is an interdisciplinary social scientist with expertise on the uptake of HIV-prevention and treatment services; behavioural economics; the social and behavioural determinants of HIV risk; COVID-19 preventive behaviours and vaccine hesitancy; and survey design. Dr Maughan-Brown serves as a Chief Research Officer at the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town. He is a faculty member at Indlela – a behavioural nudge unit based at the University of Witwatersrand’s Health Economics & Epidemiology Research Office (HE²RO). Brendan’s research interests include behavioural interventions to increase demand for health services and products, including interventions to help people living with HIV to access care and treatment; understanding the psychosocial and structural barriers to early antiretroviral therapy initiation; understanding high HIV incidence rates among young women in Africa; and HIV stigma.

Kind regards

SALDRU