Friendship Bench for Women Who Use Methamphetamine in Vietnam

The ability to enroll WWUM is assessed through the recruitment rate (number of WWUM approached to accrue the final sample) and reasons for non-participation.

Based on data from previous studies in Vietnam, the study team defines feasible retention as 80% retention at 6-weeks.

As peer outreach workers will conduct home visits or visits to workplace, the study team considers 70% participants attending all 6 individual sessions to be feasible. The reasons for session non-attendance, and counselor time per session and per patient including preparation, documentation, and supervision will also be assessed to explain the Friendship Bench completion rate.

Acceptability is defined as the perception among implementation stakeholders that the intervention is agreeable or satisfactory. The study team will assess acceptability through the 6-week follow-up interview with all participants (n=100) and peer workers (n=10). Acceptability will also be assessed qualitatively using the post-intervention in-depth interviews with peer workers (n=10), participants (n=20) and brief exit interviews with supervisors (n=2). The interviews will assess how easy the intervention is to participate and to deliver, the perceived usefulness of the intervention and suggestions for improvement. Intervention acceptability is defined as 80% participants rating the intervention as acceptable and by a common theme of positive perceptions of Friendship Bench in qualitative data.

Fidelity is defined as delivery of the intervention as intended. Master trainers will use a checklist to assess fidelity to session content either during direct monitoring or using audio recording of 1 randomly chosen session per patient or up to 8 sessions per counselor. Covering at least 75% of checklist items during each session is considered fidelity to the intervention protocol.

The mental health outcome is defined to be common mental disorders symptom response and measured as a composite score. Common mental disorders symptom response is based on common mental disorders symptom improvement. Common mental disorders symptom improvement is defined as the percent improvement in each depression, anxiety and stress subscale of the 21-item Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) from baseline, averaged across only those subscales that were elevated at baseline. Each subscale ranges from 0 to 42, with higher scores indicating worse outcomes.

Meth use outcomes include changes in the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) score for meth and the amphetamine use behaviors scale between baseline and follow-up visits. The ASSIST score ranges from 0 to 39 for each drug assessed, higher scores indicating greater risk.

Changes in the number of participants with positive urinalysis between baseline and follow-up visits.