The Child Community Care Study

The Child Community Care study is a multinational study that was designed to investigate a set of long-term child development and wellbeing outcomes in children affected by HIV. The purpose of the study is to create an evidence base to inform policy for the provision of community-based services for children affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa, Malawi and Zambia. A total of 1228 HIV affected children (4-13 years) accessing community-based support in the three countries participated along with their caregivers in the original study in 2011-2014 and a second follow-up assessment will be conducted in 2021.

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The team have obtained ethical approval from local research ethics committees in all three countries. Due to the COIVD-19 pandemic, all data collection procedures were suspended until 2021. The Child Community Care Study forms part of the ‘Accelerating Achievement for Africa’s Adolescents Hub’, which is a multi-disciplinary research initiative to help African adolescents achieve their potential. The Hub aims to provide policy makers with the evidence they need to choose cost-programmes that work, and that are cost-effective and scalable. Various statistical analyses are performed using data from the studies included in the hub to identify potential “accelerator synergies”. Accelerator synergies are combinations of interventions that work alongside each other to have a greater impact across multiple Sustainable Development Goals.

Multiple locations; South Africa, Malawi and Zambia

Children (4-13 years)

Children’s experiences coping with trauma

This study aimed to create evidence relating to the typical profile of acute psychological recovery post-trauma in children from high-risk communities. This study measured post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms following exposure to acute psychological trauma in children aged 8-16 years and over the subsequent six months. A total of 10 children, along with their caregivers, were recruited from the Emergency Department at Khayelitsha Hospital, Cape Town.

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Caregiver-child dyads were assessed within 6 weeks of experiencing a traumatic event, followed by a 3-month and 6-month follow-up assessment.

Khayelitsha, Western Cape, South Africa

Children (8-16 years) and their caregivers

The Philani Mentor Mother Study

The Philani study is a long-term cluster randomised controlled trial, measuring the impact of the Mentor Mother home-visiting programme on maternal and child health and nutrition outcomes. Philani’s Mentor Mothers, selected from the communities they serve, are positive role models who are trained to work as community health workers. Mentor Mothers monitor and support infant and child nutritional status and development, refer families to clinic care, and become sources of ongoing social support to their neighbourhood peers. The original study was conducted during 2009–2014 in three townships surrounding Cape Town, South Africa. In the course of 2018 and 2019 we followed up caregivers and their 8-year-old children in Cape Town and in the Eastern Cape.

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Mothers and their children were assessed in order to determine if there were any long-term benefits of the early intervention. Additional telephonic data collection took place during the COIVD-19 pandemic to determine the impact of the pandemic on family wellbeing, mental health, and child development.

Khayelitsha, Western Cape, South Africa

Mother-child pairs