September 17, 2026
Researchers receive award to design mHealth intervention to support adolescents transition to adult HIV care
We are pleased to announce a new NIH-funded grant titled, “iTake Charge: Development and evaluation of an m-Health transition intervention for youth living with HIV in Kenya,” led by Multiple Principal Investigators Dr. Kristin Beima-Sofie (Senior Research Scientist, Global WACh), and Emory University faculty, Dr. Irene Njuguna (also Global WACh Advisor, Partnership and Collaboration) and Dr. Brian Zanoni.
The study addresses challenges among adolescents with HIV who are transitioning from pediatric to adult-centered care. They often experience high rates of mortality, virologic failure, and loss to follow up. Mobile health interventions (mHealth) offer great promise in improving the transition process and optimizing retention in care and viral suppression.
The study will use a user-centered design approach to create a new mHealth intervention called iTake Charge, based on two evidence-based interventions that support transition processes for youth living with HIV (the Adolescent Transition Package [ATP] from Kenya and Interactive Transition Support for Adolescents with HIV [InTSHA] from South Africa). The new iTake Charge intervention will be developed collaboratively with youth, parents, healthcare providers and policy leaders and include interactive strategies like gaming, videos, and animations to improve transition readiness for adolescents with HIV in Kenya. Following prototype development, iTake Charge will be pilot tested in a randomized clinical trial in 10 HIV care clinics in Kenya.
The study team includes Co-Investigators at Kenyatta National Hospital in Kenya (Paul Macharia, Cyrus Mugo, Dalton Wamalwa) and at UW Department of Global Health/Global WACh (Grace John-Stewart and Barbara Richardson). We look forward to sharing future updates on this project.
For more information about the ATP and InTSHA interventions, read trial results papers co-authored by the iTake Charge MPIs:
- Transition to independent care for youth living with HIV: a cluster randomised clinical trial published in The Lancet HIV 2022 (Njuguna, Beima-Sofie)
- Acceptability, feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of the mHealth intervention, InTSHA, on retention in care and viral suppression among adolescents with HIV in South Africa: a pilot randomized clinical trial published in AIDS Care 2024 (Zanzoni)