Empowering Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Vietnam: A Hybrid Online-Offline Intervention to Combat Stigma

Women living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA) encounter numerous challenges, such as stigma and gender disparities, that hinder their access to care, especially in patriarchal societies like Vietnam. We developed a hybrid intervention with online and offline (in-person) components to empower WLHA in Vietnam. The intervention was pilot tested with 91 WLHA in Hanoi. During baseline and 4-month, study investigators delivered two in-person sessions, one Zoom session, and 15 weeks of Zalo (social media platform) discussions to enhance positive coping strategies, treatment utilization and adherence, and engagement of support from family and peers. The participants continued their Zalo discussions from 4-month to 6-month without investigators' involvement. Intervention outcomes, including active coping and perceived barriers to care, were evaluated at baseline, 4-, and 6-month surveys. Mixed-effects regression models showed that the participants' active coping significantly increased from baseline (50.5 +/- 9.4) to 4-month (53.8 +/- 6.2; p = 0.0001), although there was a slight decrease at 6-month (52.8 +/- 7.2), the change from 4-month to 6-month was not significantly significant (p = 0.3256). There was a significant reduction in participants' perceived barriers to care, from 19.8 +/- 5.2 at baseline to 17.4 +/- 5.2 at 4-month (p < 0.0001), which remained stable at 17.8 +/- 4.3 at 6-month (p < 0.0001 compared to baseline). This intervention presents a promising model to empower WLHA in Vietnam and potentially in similar global contexts. Future interventions could benefit from leveraging natural peer leaders and adopting a more person-centered approach to meet WLHA's varying needs.