Increasing HIV Knowledge among Community Workers: Optimizing the Continuum of Care in Davao, Philippines

Abstract

Background: Over 38 million individuals have been diagnosed with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) worldwide, and the Southeast Asia and Pacific region accounts for 5.8 million of those. Regional progress reduced transmission by 9%, but the Philippines' rising epidemic is largely overshadowed by other countries experiencing tremendous improvement. The Philippines has seen a 203% increase in new infections from 2010-2020, while studies suggest only 2.3% of the population has been tested. Before testing programs can expand, HIV education needs to be evaluated and improved to increase testing. The purpose of this study is to improve HIV knowledge among community workers, which will contribute to latter phases of reducing stigma and increasing testing to build the Davao HIV Continuum of Care. Methods: A single cohort quasi-experimental design was used with a preand post-test bivariate analysis. A convenience sample of 18 community workers, ages 18-54 years was used for HIV train-the-trainer sessions. The HIVKQ-18 instrument was integrated within training sessions to accurately measure HIV knowledge before and after the intervention. A total of eleven participants were retained for analysis after the exclusion criteria review. Data analysis was conducted with SPSS, and Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test was used to analyze statistical improvement. Results: Participants demonstrated low levels of HIV knowledge on the pre-test with an average score of 57.55% (SD = 17.99). Post-test scores (79.27%) showed substantial knowledge improvement with an average increase of 21.72 points. The standard deviation also drastically decreased on the post-test suggesting improvement as well (SD = 9.19). This increase was statistically significant as analyses confirmed that participants improved their HIV knowledge after the HIV education intervention (p = 0.003) Conclusion: This study provides a platform to begin to build the HIV Continuum of Care with a multi-phased approach in Davao.Now that HIV knowledge has been improved among clinic and community workers, the next phase of increasing the availability of HIV testing within a community setting can take place. Simultaneously, linkage to care and access to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) will be integrated through partnership with the local Department of Health.