Dawe, Joshua, Gorton, Carla, Lewis, Rhondda, Richmond, Jacqueline A., Wilkinson, Anna L., Pedrana, Alisa, Stoové, Mark, Doyle, Joseph S., and Russell, Darren (2024) Evaluation of a Project Integrating Financial Incentives into a Hepatitis C Testing and Treatment Model of Care at a Sexual Health Service in Cairns, Australia, 2020–2021. Viruses, 16 (5). 800.

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Abstract

Background: Understanding the effectiveness of novel models of care in community-based settings is critical to achieving hepatitis C elimination. We conducted an evaluation of a hepatitis C model of care with financial incentives that aimed to improve engagement across the hepatitis C cascade of care at a sexual health service in Cairns, Australia.

Methods: Between March 2020 and May 2021, financial incentives were embedded into an established person-centred hepatitis C model of care at Cairns Sexual Health Service. Clients of the Service who self-reported experiences of injecting drugs were offered an AUD 20 cash incentive for hepatitis C testing, treatment initiation, treatment completion, and test for cure. Descriptive statistics were used to describe retention in hepatitis C care in the incentivised model. They were compared to the standard of care offered in the 11 months prior to intervention.

Results: A total of 121 clients received financial incentives for hepatitis C testing (antibody or RNA). Twenty-eight clients were hepatitis C RNA positive, of whom 92% (24/28) commenced treatment, 75% (21/28) completed treatment, and 68% (19/28) achieved a sustained virological response (SVR). There were improvements in the proportion of clients diagnosed with hepatitis C who commenced treatment (86% vs. 75%), completed treatment (75% vs. 40%), and achieved SVR (68% vs. 17%) compared to the pre-intervention comparison period.

Conclusions: In this study, financial incentives improved engagement and retention in hepatitis C care for people who inject drugs in a model of care that incorporated a person-centred and flexible approach.

Item ID:	85986
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1999-4915
Copyright Information:	© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Date Deposited:	30 Jun 2025 22:39
FoR Codes:	42 HEALTH SCIENCES > 4206 Public health > 420605 Preventative health care @ 100%
SEO Codes:	28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280112 Expanding knowledge in the health sciences @ 100%
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