Peer-reviewed article
“It gives you a road map of what to do to solve your problems”: acceptability of a combination HIV prevention intervention among adolescent girls in Uganda
Ozge Sensoy Bahar, Proscovia Nabunya, Flavia Namuwonge, Satabdi Samtani, Vicent Ssentumbwe et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how acceptable adolescent girls in Uganda found the Suubi4Her intervention, an HIV prevention program combining health education, financial literacy, and savings activities. Researchers interviewed 25 girls after they completed the program to understand their experiences, barriers, and what helped them participate. Girls were highly motivated by access to health information about STIs, HIV, and pregnancy, as well as financial skills, though some had concerns about testing and time commitments. The program was well-received, with girls appreciating the group format, convenient timing, and relevant content.
Key points
- Main motivation for participation was access to health information on STIs, HIV, pregnancy, and financial literacy
- Barriers to attendance included household responsibilities, transport costs, and weather challenges
- Facilitators to attendance included motivation to learn, caregiver support, reminder calls, and participation incentives
- Participants appreciated the group format, location, session times, and found content relevant to their needs
- High overall intervention acceptability was demonstrated among adolescent girls
Limitations
This study examines acceptability through qualitative interviews only, without measuring actual HIV risk reduction or behavioral outcomes. The sample of 25 girls is small and reflects only those who completed the intervention, potentially excluding those who dropped out or had negative experiences.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The HIV burden remains a critical public health concern and adolescent girls are at significantly higher risk compared to the general adult population. Similar to other sub-Saharan African countries, Uganda reports high HIV prevalence among adolescent girls and young women. Yet, both evidence-based HIV prevention interventions and their acceptability among adolescent girls have not been widely studied. In this study, we examined the acceptability of the Suubi4Her intervention, an evidence-based combination intervention aimed at reducing HIV risk among adolescent girls in Uganda. METHODS: We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 25 adolescent girls upon intervention completion to explore their experiences with the Suubi4Her intervention that was tested in a clinical trial in Uganda (2017-2023). Specifically, we explored their decision-making process for participating in the intervention, experiences with program attendance, and their feedback on specific intervention characteristics. Informed by the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability, the data were analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The main motivation for participation was access to health-related information, including information on STIs, HIV, and pregnancy as well as information on banking, saving, and income-generating activities. Though many participants did not have any initial concerns, mistrust of programs, initial paperwork, caregiver's ability to commit time, concerns about ability to save, and HIV/STI and pregnancy testing were raised by some participants. Facilitators to session attendance included motivation to learn information, caregiver commitment, reminder calls, and incentives received for participation. The main challenges included household responsibilities and obligations, difficulty raising transport money, and weather challenges. Adolescent girls appreciated the group format and found the location and times of the sessions convenient. They also found the content relevant to their needs and noted positive changes in their families. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed high intervention acceptability among adolescent girls. These findings have important programmatic and policy implications in Uganda, especially given the higher HIV prevalence among adolescent girls in the country. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT03307226 (Registered: 10/11/17).
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Suubi4Her: an evidence-based combination intervention including health education (STI, HIV, pregnancy information), financial literacy, savings activities, and group-based sessions
- Population
- Adolescent girls in Uganda who completed the Suubi4Her intervention trial
Key finding
High acceptability of the intervention demonstrated through positive feedback on group format, timing, location, and content relevance