Intervention Development for Syndemics Among PWH in SA

In South Africa, the country with the highest HIV prevalence (19%), co-occurring problems such as depression, post-traumatic stress, and food insecurity interact to enhance one another (i.e., syndemic problems) and are associated with worse HIV outcomes such as worse antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence and worse viral load. This study proposes to: 1) explore how syndemic problems work together to make health worse for people with HIV (PWH) and explore what people think about a potential treatment; 2) develop a treatment to address syndemic problems and improve ART adherence (CBT-SA); 3a) assess whether people are willing to receive the CBT-SA we it can actually be done; and 3b) identify factors that make it easier or more difficult to receive CBT-SA.