How can we assess HIV prevalence in African countries?
Providing technical support in developing and implementing population-based HIV impact assessments (PHIAs)
Challenge
The goals of population-based HIV impact assessments (PHIAs) are to define the status of the HIV epidemic in specific President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)-supported countries.
The main objectives are to
- Estimate HIV incidence and/or prevalence of viral load suppression at national and/or subnational levels
- Assess access to and uptake of HIV services at the population level
- Estimate the prevalence of HIV-related risk behaviors
Working with ICAP at Columbia University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Westat has provided technical support in developing and implementing PHIAs in 15 PEPFAR-supported countries.
Solution
Westat performs the following tasks:
- Provides statistical expertise in survey sampling and weighting
- Supports all aspects of electronic data collection on tablet computers
- Develops dashboards to track the progress of data collection
- Provides general mapping and global positioning system (GPS) support to facilitate data collection
- Manages the survey data and prepares the final datasets used for analysis
- Assists ICAP in now implementing population-based surveys in 6 countries: Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe.
The Results
Results of the surveys provide critical information on HIV and help shape national policies and programs to better confront the epidemic.