A Knowledge Translation Intervention for TB/HIV Treatment Adherence, in Zomba District, Malawi

Despite increased emphasis on evidence based practice in recent years a gap remains between evidence and practice, particularly in resource poor countries. Few studies to date have examined the use of knowledge translation strategies to improve health care outcomes in low income countries. However, given that the majority of health care in these settings is provided by workers with less training and limited resources, the theoretical potential for knowledge translation strategies to improve health care delivery and outcomes by integrating best evidence into routine practice may be greatest in these settings.

Knowledge translation (KT) is an approach to changing health care provider behavior to reduce the gap between evidence and practice in health care delivery. There has been a tendency for knowledge translation interventions to employ generic, "off the shelf", strategies, and apply them to deal with specific issues. This generic approach, fails to recognize the variability in the specific characteristics of health care settings, in terms of their patient populations, health care systems, and health care providers. These characteristics, whether they function as barriers or facilitators to change, make a generalized approach to KT ineffective, where a tailored strategy, which specifically adjusts its approach to measured local barriers and facilitators may achieve better alignment of practice to evidence. This is likely to be particularly true in low income countries where the majority of health care is provided by non-physician health care workers, working within a wider range of health care systems, with variable and unique patient populations and resource constraints. Given the potential to significantly impact health care outcomes at relatively low cost, further research is needed both to develop methods for identifying potential barriers and facilitators to KT strategies in specific resource poor settings, and to evaluate the effectiveness of KT strategies tailored to address the identified barriers.

This study will assess the effectiveness of a two part knowledge translation intervention tailored to address factors identified in a previous study as functioning as barriers and facilitators to treatment adherence among patients on treatment for tuberculosis or combined tuberculosis and antiretroviral treatment, targeting improved patient adherence and health outcomes, in a specific low income country.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Tuberculosis
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Palm-Plus; Other: Knowledge translation intervention

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 28
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Malawi
  • Zomba, Malawi
    • Zomba District Health Centers, Dignitas International

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• All health centers in Zomba District

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control
Active Comparator: PALM-Plus control; Health centers randomized to Palm-Plus intervention in larger trial this trial is embedded in, but not receiving the adherence intervention.	Other: Palm-Plus; Clinical guideline and training approach, designed for mid-level healthworkers.
Experimental: Adherence intervention; Intervention arm.	Other: Knowledge translation intervention; Two part intervention includes an educational outreach intervention for health care workers and a point of care patient education/counselling tool, delivered to providers within health centers randomized to the intervention arm, using a train the trainer on-site training model.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Proportion of patients classified as successfully treated.	Treatment success is defined as cure or treatment completion. Outcomes measured at patient level at end of treatment (6 months), and at 1 year at health center level (randomized at level of health center)	1 year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Proportion of patients defaulting from treatment.	Default defined as missing greater than or equal 2 consecutive months of treatment. Outcome measured at patient level at end of treatment (6 months), and 1 year at level of health center (randomized at level of health center).	1 year
Proportion of successfully treated and default cases among patients treated for tuberculosis only and those on both tuberculosis and antiretroviral treatment	Treatment success defined as cure or treatment completion. Outcome measured at patient level at end of treatment (6 months), and at 1 year for the the health center (randomized at level of health center)	1 year
Weight change.	Weight change from start to end of treatment. Outcome measured at patient level throughout treatment (6 months) and at 1 year at the health center level (randomized at level of health center).	1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Dignitas International
• Collaborators: University of Toronto; Ministry of Health and Population, Malawi
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Lisa Puchalski Ritchie, University of Toronto

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Puchalski Ritchie LM, Schull MJ, Martiniuk AL, Barnsley J, Arenovich T, van Lettow M, Chan AK, Mills EJ, Makwakwa A, Zwarenstein M. A knowledge translation intervention to improve tuberculosis care and outcomes in Malawi: a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial. Implement Sci. 2015 Mar 28;10:38. doi: 10.1186/s13012-015-0228-y.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: March 1, 2011
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 1, 2012
• Study Completion (Actual): May 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 17, 2011
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 18, 2011
• First Posted (Estimate): May 19, 2011

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): August 29, 2012
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 28, 2012
• Last Verified: May 1, 2011

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Tuberculosis; Treatment Adherence; knowledge translation; Educational outreach
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Infections; Bacterial Infections; Bacterial Infections and Mycoses; Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections; Actinomycetales Infections; Mycobacterium Infections; Tuberculosis
• Other Study ID Numbers: DI807