Differentiated HIV Service Delivery vs Conventional Care: Tuberculosis Preventive Therapy Outcomes for People Living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa

IntroductionDifferentiated service delivery (DSD) models, which are mechanisms of HIV care that reduce provider visits and offer varied ART delivery methods, are scaling up across sub- Saharan Africa. It is unknown how the movement of patients to DSD models impacts services beyond ART, including the uptake and completion of tuberculosis preventive therapy (TPT). MethodsUsing the RE-AIM framework, we analyzed data from Opt4TPT, a longitudinal cohort study examining TPT delivery in South Africa and Zimbabwe. We constructed multivariate logistic regression models to evaluate the association of receiving ART from a DSD model with the proportion of participants who initiated and completed TPT, as measured by electronic medication boxes. We constructed a Cox proportional hazards model to assess the association between DSD models and time to TPT initiation. ResultsAmong 1193 participants, 276 received ART through a DSD model, while 917 used the conventional model. Overall, 1035 (87%) initiated TPT, including 242 (88%) in DSD models and 793 (86%) in conventional models. Receiving ART from a DSD model was not significantly associated (OR 1.11, 95% CI 0.74-1.67, p = 0.61) with TPT initiation. DSD models had a significantly longer mean time to initiation (6.5 vs. 2.7 days, p = 0.01). Of the 731 (71%) participants with MERM box data, 356 (49%) completed TPT. Bivariate analysis showed significantly higher odds of completing TPT among those in DSD models (OR 1.53, 95% CI 1.06- 2.21, p=0.024). This association was not significant in multivariate analysis after adjusting for demographic and clinical factors (OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.58-1.36, p=0.58). ConclusionsWe found high TPT uptake in DSD and conventional models of care, indicating that TPT delivery in DSD models is feasible. We found low TPT completion in both models of care, showing a need to focus on improving TPT completion overall.