Partnering to Enhance Anal Health Communication and HIV-related Evidence-based Services

This project aims to determine whether scaling PEACHES 2.0, a package of multi-level, multi-component implementation strategies to address anal sex stigma within health services can increase provider adoption and patient uptake of four anal sex-related HIV services (ASHS). These services - anorectal STI testing, HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), Doxy-PEP (gonorrhea and chlamydia doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis), and anal cancer screening - are endorsed by federal, state and professional organizations as standard-of-care and would effectively accelerate an end to the HIV epidemic, if implemented. Yet provider adoption and patient uptake of these services is suboptimal relative to their indication. Stigma is a fundamental cause underlying the causal chain of this underuse, hindering patient communication, providers' preparedness, and organizational prioritization to deliver care. This project continues preliminary work to develop and pilot test a package of strategies in the U.S. South (PEACHES 1.0, NCT) that used the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior (COM-B) Model and the 'total facility approach' as a multi-level framework for stigma reduction. The proposed R01 study now integrates the Behaviour Change Intervention Ontology (BCIO) into Causal Pathway Diagrams (CPDs) to articulate a theory of change for how a refined and standardized package of strategies (PEACHES 2.0), its component behavior change techniques, purported mechanisms of action, and potential effect modifiers, will interact to improve provider adoption and patient uptake of ASHS. The investigator team hypothesizes that changes to the previously piloted package of strategies to improve reach - a true 'total facility approach' - will improve adoption and uptake. In Aim 1, PEACHES 1.0 will be refined and standardized to prepare for larger-scale evaluation of PEACHES 2.0. A training-of-trainers strategy will be added; web-based resources to improve usability and appropriateness will be enhanced; a Clinical Learning Collaborative (CLC) led by anal health experts will be piloted; and an audit-and-feedback electronic medical record (EMR) dashboard that visualizes outcome data for use in quality improvement (QI) coaching will be developed. In Aim 2, a hybrid type 1 implementation-effectiveness, interrupted-time series trial among eight clinical sites in the Mississippi Delta, a region with some of the nation's highest rates of HIV and STIs, will be conducted. The effectiveness of PEACHES 2.0 on increasing EMR-documented provider adoption and patient uptake of ASHS (primarily anorectal STI testing, secondarily Doxy-PEP, PrEP and anal cancer screening), testing hypothesized mechanisms of action and moderators, will be evaluated. The research team will also investigate variability across sites through an exploratory test of emergent mechanisms and moderators based on mixed-methods inquiry using the Rapid Assessment Procedure-Informed Clinical Ethnography (RAPICE) method. This study will generate actionable knowledge to promote provider adoption and patient uptake of ASHS. This implementation science approach - the integration of standardized definitions with causal inference tools using the BCIO and CPDs - will also facilitate synthesis with other studies, enhance replicability, and enable broader insights into how stigma mitigation can improve delivery of essential HIV interventions that protect health.

This registration is specific to Aim 2's evaluation of effectiveness of PEACHES 2.0 on patient uptake of ASHS, among N = 8 participating clinics.