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. 2025 Apr;28(4):e26437.
doi: 10.1002/jia2.26437.

Characterizing adolescent and youth-friendly HIV services: a cross-sectional assessment across 16 global sites

Lonnie Embleton  1 , Tavitiya Sudjaritruk  2   3 , Daisy Maria Machado  4 , Belinda Chihota  5 , Françoise Musabyimana  6 , Julie Jesson  7 , Edith Apondi  8 , Thanyawee Puthanakit  9 , Marco Tulio Luque  10 , Nicola Ellen van Dongen  11 , Gad Murenzi  6 , Madeleine Amorissani-Folquet  12 , Zachary Kwena  13 , Nicole Perreras  14 , Vanessa Rouzier  15 , Rita Lyamuya  16 , Kim Anderson  17 , Batya Elul  18 , Valériane Leroy  7 , Leslie A Enane  19 , Roxanne Martin  1 , Kathryn Lancaster  20 , Angela M Parcesepe  21 , Rachel Vreeman  1 ; IeDEA
Affiliations

Characterizing adolescent and youth-friendly HIV services: a cross-sectional assessment across 16 global sites

Lonnie Embleton et al. J Int AIDS Soc. 2025 Apr.

Abstract

Introduction: Adolescent and youth-friendly health services (AYFHS) have been promoted as a best practice for adolescents and young people living with HIV (AYLH). However, thorough descriptions of AYFHS for AYLH remain scarce. We sought to characterize adolescent-friendly HIV services in a global paediatric research consortium.

Methods: Cross-sectional data were collected from 16 global sites in the Adolescent and Young Adult Network of IeDEA (AYANI) of the International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS consortium between August 2020 and October 2022 using a standardized site assessment tool that collected data on clinic, patient and provider characteristics, differentiated care, and transition to adult services processes. Descriptive analyses characterized the health services available across the participating sites, using frequencies and proportions for categorical variables and medians and interquartile range for continuous variables. Data were analysed using RStudio.

Results: Overall, 13 of 16 sites (81%) reported having dedicated adolescent services, which most often consisted of dedicated clinic days (62%, n = 8/13), primarily offered on weekdays. Across all sites, nurses and counsellors delivered services to adolescents. Over half of all clinics (69%, n = 11/16) reported offering health education to adolescents to facilitate adolescent health literacy. Peer educators and navigators were involved in delivering services at 62% of sites, primarily in those with dedicated adolescent services (69%, n = 9/13). There was limited integration of sexual and reproductive health services into HIV clinics for adolescents. With 63% of clinics conducting pregnancy screening, 50% providing family planning methods and 38% providing cervical cancer screening. Under half of all HIV clinics screened for physical abuse or violence (44%, n = 7/16) and sexual abuse or rape (38%, n = 6/16). A low proportion of clinics screened for risk factors related to young key populations, including drug use (56%, n = 9/16), homelessness (38%, n = 6/16) young men having sex with men (31%, n = 5/16) and transactional sex (31%, n = 5/16). Mental health screening for concerns was variable.

Conclusions: Findings suggest gaps in AYFHS for AYLH across the HIV clinics included in this analysis. There is a vital need to design health services for AYLH that are accessible, equitable, and effective and meet the global standards for delivering high-quality healthcare to adolescents.

Keywords: HIV; adolescent; adolescent‐friendly health services; care services; implementation; transition.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

References

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