Health and Socioeconomic Well-being of Young People Living with HIV in Zambia: Evaluating the ZAMFAM Project

The U. S. Agency for International Development and U. S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief are supporting the Zambia Family (ZAMFAM) project to strengthen comprehensive, integrated service delivery and support to children living with, affected by, or vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in the Lusaka, Copperbelt, Southern, and Central Provinces of Zambia. Project SOAR is conducting a three-year prospective cohort study of young people living with (YPLHIV) and their primary caregivers/guardians in Central Province where the ZAMFAM project is being implemented, and in Eastern Province where there are no ongoing ZAMFAM activities for comparison.

During the period from July to October 2017, we collected information on a total of 544 YPLHIV, aged 5–17 years, and the same number of caregivers/guardians. The information collected in the study focused on key thematic areas that ZAMFAM aims to improve, including health and nutrition, food security, shelter, schooling, child protection, psychosocial status, and HIV testing and treatment. This research brief highlights some of the key baseline indicators of health and socioeconomic well-being of YPLHIV in the study sites.