Home visits and nutrition to prevent deaths after hospital stays for people with HIV

HomeLink2: Reducing posthospitalization mortality among people living with HIV through structured home care and nutritional supplementation

NIH-funded research Johns Hopkins University · NIH-11394708

This compares regular home visits and home visits plus food supplements to usual care for adults with HIV leaving the hospital to help them stay on treatment and live longer.

Quick facts

Grant typeR01 grant
Study typeNIH-funded research
Funding institutionJohns Hopkins University NIH-funded
Lab location1 site (Baltimore, United States)
Project IDNIH-11394708 on NIH RePORTER

What this research studies

If you join, you would be placed into one of three paths after leaving the hospital: usual care, structured home visits with counseling, or structured home visits plus nutritional supplements. Trained staff will visit your home after discharge to offer psychosocial support, check medications, and help connect you to clinic care. Some people in the program will receive food or nutrition support to address food insecurity that can make it hard to stick with HIV treatment. The team will follow participants for months to track treatment adherence, timely medical care, and survival after hospital discharge.

Who could benefit from this research

Good fit: Adults living with HIV who have recently been hospitalized and face barriers to starting or staying on ART, especially those with food insecurity, are the ideal candidates.

Not a fit: People who were not recently hospitalized, children, or individuals who live outside the South African study area are unlikely to be eligible or directly benefit.

Why it matters

Potential benefit: If successful, this could substantially lower deaths after hospital discharge and help more people stay on life-saving HIV treatment.

How similar studies have performed: A prior pilot of the HomeLink approach cut posthospital deaths by about 60%, so this larger trial aims to see if that benefit holds up and can be scaled.

Where this research is happening

Baltimore, United States

Researchers

About this research

  1. This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
  2. Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
  3. For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.
Conditions Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome VirusAcquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Virus
Last reviewed 2026-06-10 by the Find a Trial editorial team. Information on this page is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Always consult qualified healthcare professionals about clinical trial participation.