Lets HIV patients who stopped treatment choose their support services in Malawi
Tests a choice-based support program for adults and teens with HIV who stopped treatment.
Plain-language title generated from the registry record
Registry title: Ongoing Dynamic Choice to Address HIV Treatment Interruption in Malawi
Key facts
- Where
- Lilongwe, MalawiSee the site
AI summary: who the study is looking for
From the trial's eligibility criteria. Machine-read from the registry text on this page, so it can be wrong. The registry text below and the trial team decide who can take part.
The trial is looking for people living with HIV who had a gap in their HIV treatment at their latest clinic visit in Malawi. It tests long-term choice of care services against standard care.
- Age
- 15 years or older
- Sex
- All sexes
- Disease stage
- People who started antiretroviral therapy (ART) more than 3 months ago and were more than 28 days late at their most recent ART appointment.
- Earlier treatment
- Started ART for the first time more than 3 months ago, so not a new start.
- Biomarker or test result
- Living with HIV.
Main reasons for not taking part
- Pregnant women cannot join.
- People who started ART less than 3 months ago (new starts) cannot join.
Read by machine on 9 November 2026.
Where in Malawi
- Partners in HopeLilongwe, MalawiTaking people
Questions to ask the study team
- How often do I need to come in, and for how long each time?
- Are travel costs paid?
- Can I keep my own doctor?
- What happens if I want to stop?
Contact the study team: see the registry record → Contacts and Locations
Print a page for my doctorTrial details
- Who runs it
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Trial code
- NCT07220278
- Record updated
- 18 December 2025
- Original description
Repeat and prolonged treatment interruption (TI) is common and the major threat to HIV epidemic control in eastern and southern Africa. The proposed project will test an innovative long-term dynamic choice intervention for ART clients experiencing TI in Malawi. Findings will provide essential information on how to improve sustained retention among TI client, a critical step to curbing the HIV epidemic. TI clients need long-term, responsive interventions. There are no one-size fits all intervention to support long-term care for TI clients because clients experience vastly different and changing barriers to care. While health facilities do have limited capacity for adding new services, existing services can be packaged differently to meet clients' needs.Read full original descriptionShow less
Ongoing Dynamic Choice to Address HIV Treatment Interruption in Malawi (CHOICE)
Repeat and prolonged treatment interruption (TI) is common and the major threat to HIV epidemic control in eastern and southern Africa. The proposed project will test an innovative long-term dynamic choice intervention for ART clients experiencing TI in Malawi. Findings will provide essential information on how to improve sustained retention among TI client, a critical step to curbing the HIV epidemic. TI clients need long-term, responsive interventions. There are no one-size fits all intervention to support long-term care for TI clients because clients experience vastly different and changing barriers to care. While health facilities do have limited capacity for adding new services, existing services can be packaged differently to meet clients' needs.
Long-term, dynamic choice of services is one way to provide responsive services and promotes client ownership over care. The investigators propose to give TI clients long-term, dynamic choice of what services they receive and how they receive it (drawing from key building blocks of DSD). Long-term, dynamic choice puts clients in the driver's seat and may be the best practical strategy to provide long-term and responsive TI interventions that are tailored to clients' evolving life circumstances. Dynamic choice is frequently used for HIV prevention and family planning products, whereby clients select the type of health product that works best for them (i.e., condoms, injectables, etc.). Choice of these services is strongly associated with improved outcomes.
The goal of this clinical trial is to determine if CHOICE can improve outcomes in TI clients, compared to standard of care (SOC). Participants will be randomly assigned to either the CHOICE or SOC group, and follow them for 12 months. The primary outcome will be viral suppression at 12 months.
Inclusion: 15 years of age or older; living with HIV; initiated ART for the first time>3-months ago (i.e., not a new initiate); non-pregnant; experienced Treatment Interuptions during their most recent ARTappointment (>28 days late).
Exclusion: pregnant women because the ART/antenatal care (ANC) programs are integrated and require additional considerations and linkages with antenatal services.