ARA Trial

Adolescent Retention and Adherence Trial (ARA Trial) aimed to improve the retention in care and adherence to antiretroviral therapy of HIV-positive adolescents living in Anambra State, Southeastern Nigeria. Poor retention-in-care and non-adherence to antiretroviral therapy increases the viral load, worsens disease, and increases the chances of transmission of HIV. This has huge health implications in sub-Saharan Africa that bear about 90% of the global adolescent HIV population. Unfortunately, there are few service delivery interventions that have been applied to solve the above-mentioned issue. ARA trial proposes an incentive scheme to solve the poor retention in care and adherence to antiretroviral therapy by adolescents living with HIV. The incentive scheme comprised of a cash incentive conditioned on meeting undetectable viral load target and attending motivational interviewing session every time the adolescent living with HIV visits the hospital. The incentive scheme aimed to keep adolescents living with HIV in care and improve their adherence to antiretroviral therapy. The theory behind combining two interventions is that conditional cash incentive could increase demand for care and adherence to therapy immediately especially since financial reward could be obtained as the set target is achieved while motivational interviewing, on the other hand, could help to sustain the demand for care and adherence to therapy since it will help bring about long-lasting character change This dataset presents the baseline, 12th month (intervention period), and 24th-month (post-intervention period) results of the ARA Trial.