A Randomized Trial of ImpACT+, a Coping Intervention for HIV Infected Women With Sexual Trauma in South Africa (ImpACT+)

August 7, 2026 updated by: Kathleen J. Sikkema, PhD, Columbia University

Project Someleze: A Randomized Trial of ImpACT+, a Coping Intervention to Improve Clinical and Mental Health Outcomes Among HIV-infected Women With Sexual Trauma in South Africa

ImpACT+ (Improving AIDS Care after Trauma+), is an individual-level coping intervention to address traumatic stress and HIV care engagement among South African women with sexual trauma histories. We propose a full-scale randomized controlled trial to examine the effect of ImpACT+ on clinical outcomes in the period after ART initiation and to understand mental health and behavioral mechanisms through which viral suppression can be achieved. ImpACT+ will target women who are initiating ART in order to take advantage of a window of opportunity in HIV care and maximize care engagement. The aims are to test the effectiveness of ImpACT+ and explore its potential for implementation.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Addressing sexual trauma in the context of HIV care is essential to improve clinical outcomes and mental health among women in South Africa. Women represent nearly two-thirds of the South African HIV epidemic, and they report disproportionately high rates of sexual trauma, which negatively impacts their mental health and may lead to avoidant coping behaviors. The psychological sequaelae of trauma can adversely impact retention in HIV care and adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART), which may in turn reduce viral suppression and increase the risk of HIV transmission to others. HIV care engagement may be particularly challenging in South Africa, where women face dual epidemics of HIV and sexual violence, with limited access to mental health treatment. In this setting, interventions that address barriers to effective HIV care engagement and improve health outcomes across the care continuum are urgently needed. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of ImpACT+ (Improving AIDS Care after Trauma+), an individual-level intervention based on theories of stress and coping, on clinical outcomes among HIV-infected women with sexual trauma. Secondary objectives include determining whether reductions in traumatic stress and avoidant coping mediate intervention effects on clinical outcomes, and assessing potential for scalability and full-scale implementation. ImpACT+ was developed and culturally adapted to the South African context, targeting women who are initiating ART (classified clinically as naïve initiators, restarters or defaulters) to make use of a window of opportunity in HIV care and maximize impact on care engagement. The proposed five-year study seeks to rigorously evaluate ImpACT+, using a hybrid effectiveness-implementation design (Hybrid Type I), with three specific aims: (1) evaluate the effectiveness of ImpACT+ on viral suppression, ART adherence, and HIV care engagement; (2) assess the degree to which reductions in PTSD symptoms and avoidant coping mediate intervention effects; and (3) explore potential for scalability and full-scale implementation. The trial will enroll 350 women who have initiated ART and have a history of sexual trauma and elevated traumatic stress. Participants will be randomized to the ImpACT+ intervention condition (six weekly sessions, with six maintenance check-ins over the 12-month follow-up period) or the control condition (three weekly sessions of Problem Solving Therapy (PST)). All participants will complete a baseline assessment at enrollment (within four months of initiating ART), with additional behavioral assessments and viral load testing at 4-month, 8-month, and 12-month follow-up. ART adherence will also be assessed using dried blood spot (DBS) biomarkers, and care engagement data will be extracted from medical records at the end of the study period. This study is one of the first full-scale trials of a trauma-informed intervention on clinical outcomes for HIV-infected women. If effective, ImpACT+ will fill a critical void in evidence-based trauma interventions in this setting and combat the drop-off across the HIV continuum of care in South Africa, as well as inform such approaches in the U.S. and globally.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
350

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Locations

  • South Africa
      • Cape Town, South Africa
        • University of Cape Town

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Women with HIV who receive care at either study clinic
  • >2 weeks to <4 months since ART initiation
  • History of sexual trauma
  • Meets criteria for traumatic stress
  • Xhosa speaking

Exclusion Criteria:

- High suicide risk

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Improving AIDS Care after Trauma+
ImpACT+ (Improving AIDS Care after Trauma+), is an individual-level coping intervention to address traumatic stress and HIV care engagement among South African women with sexual trauma histories. The ImpACT+ individual sessions will focus on coping skills and care engagement during an early critical period, while maintenance check-ins will serve to reinforce positive change and support the ongoing implementation of skills as new challenges arise.
Behavioral: Improving AIDS Care After Trauma +
ImpACT+ integrates skills for HIV treatment adherence and coping with trauma, tailored to the South African context. This includes exploration of values informing care engagement, recognizing the synergistic stress of sexual trauma and HIV, understanding the contribution of stressors to maladaptive coping, and developing adaptive methods for coping as alternatives to avoidance. ImpACT+ will be delivered in private spaces at the primary care clinic and will consist of 6 individual sessions followed by 6 maintenance check-ins. Individual sessions focus on coping, adherence, and care engagement during an early critical period, while maintenance check-ins reinforce positive change and support ongoing implementation of skills. Evidence supports a 6-session format in low-resource settings. Individual sessions will begin within 2 weeks after the baseline survey and be completed by the 4-month assessment. Maintenance check-ins will begin following the 4-month assessment.
Active Comparator: Adapted Problem-Solving Therapy
Participants randomly assigned to the control condition will receive a brief adapted version of problem-solving therapy (PST), based on Problem Management Plus, a component of the World Health Organization (WHO) Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP). PST is a psychoeducational treatment focused on managing the negative effects of stressful life events. PST has been found to be effective for a range of problems, such as depression, and is recommended for implementation in low-resource settings.
Behavioral: Adapted Problem-Solving Therapy
Participants will receive three weekly individual sessions of adapted PST. The goal of PST is to identify problems that interfere with daily activities and address them through problem-orientation work. We anticipate stressors will include (a) relationship difficulties, including family stress, (b) financial stress and unemployment, (c) general impact of HIV infection, and (d) overall chronic stress. Thus, PST may indirectly address stressors that may impact care engagement, but will not address the intersection of HIV and trauma specifically.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of Participants With Viral Suppression at the 12-month Assessment
Time Frame: Up to 12 months
HIV-1 RNA viral load (COBAS AmpliPrep/COBAS TaqMan HIV-1 Test, v2.0, Roche). Viral suppression defined as <50 copies/ml. Continuous measures of viral load, modeled using a log10 transformation.
Up to 12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
HIV Care Engagement- Visit Adherence
Time Frame: Up to 12 months
Visit adherence defined as the number of scheduled visits attended.
Up to 12 months
HIV Care Engagement- Visit Constancy
Time Frame: Up to 12 months
Visit constancy defined as the number of 90-day intervals with >1 completed visit, determined by medical record abstraction.
Up to 12 months
ART Adherence - Pharmacy Visits
Time Frame: Up to 12 months
ART adherence as defined by the number of pharmacy visits. Determined through medical record abstraction.
Up to 12 months
HIV Care Engagement - Number of Participants With Missed Visits
Time Frame: up to 12 Months
The number of participants with missed visits as determined by medical record review. A missed visit was defined as missing a scheduled visit by more than two weeks from the scheduled date, which aligned with the clinics' definition.
up to 12 Months
HIV Care Engagement- Number of Participants With Gaps in Care
Time Frame: Up to 12 months
Gaps in care defined as whether >90 days have elapsed between visits without sufficient numbers of pills given to cover the gap, as determined by medical record abstraction.
Up to 12 months
Number of Participants With ART Adherence - Dried Blood Spots
Time Frame: At 12 months
Dried blood spots measuring levels of tenofovir-diphosphate, dichotomized as adherent or non-adherent based on a cutoff of 400 fmol/punch.
At 12 months
ART Adherence - Total Number of Pills Dispensed
Time Frame: Up to 12 months
ART adherence as defined by pharmacy refill data, total number of pills dispensed. Determined through medical record abstraction.
Up to 12 months

Other Outcome Measures

Other Outcome Measures

For clinical trials, a planned measurement described in the protocol that is used to determine the effect of an intervention/treatment on participants. For observational studies, a measurement or observation that is used to describe patterns of diseases or traits, or associations with exposures, risk factors, or treatment. Types of outcome measures include primary outcome measure and secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Coping Strategies Scale Score
Time Frame: at 12 Months
Self report, measured by Coping Strategies scale (Sikkema et al., 2018; based on Carver, 1997; Folkman & Lazarus, 1988; Hansen et al., 2013; Namir et al., 1987). Coping will be assessed using 41 items that were previously used to measure coping in Sub-Saharan Africa or among HIV-infected individuals. Participants will be asked how often they used these strategies in the past month to help deal with their HIV illness (1 = not at all to 4 = most of the time).
at 12 Months
Traumatic Stress Score
Time Frame: at 12 Month
Self report, measured by PTSD Checklist-Civilian version for the The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; Blevins CA, Weathers FW, Davis MT, Witte TK, and Domino JKL, 2015). PCL-5, a 20-item self-report questionnaire, will assess severity of symptoms that parallel DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Participants will be asked to indicate the extent to which they were bothered by problems experienced in the past month in relation to a traumatic experience of abuse or act of violence (0 = not at all to 4 = extremely). The total score ranges from 0-80.
at 12 Month

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Columbia University

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
University of Cape Town

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Kathleen J Sikkema, PhD, Columbia University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
February 18, 2021

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
July 3, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
July 3, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
March 9, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
March 9, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
March 11, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
August 28, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
August 7, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
August 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • AAAS3667
  • 1R01MH118004 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

The investigators will share an anonymized dataset following publications.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Following outcome publications.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Access will be granted upon reasonable requests.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Cookie Settings

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. For more details carefully read our Privacy and Cookies Policy. ...>>>You can change your preferences or withdraw your consent at any time by deleting the cookies from your website or computer as described in the policy. Please accept it and choose your preferences by ticking the corresponding boxes in the "Manage Settings" section below. Please carefully read our Terms of Service before you proceed with using any part of this website.
«Manage Settings