Research

ALPHA’s research activities are organised into specific packages of work. Workshops are essential to ALPHA’s research and each analytical topic involves at least one workshop. Harmonised data specifications are prepared in advance of each workshop. During the workshop data managers and analysts from each study work with each other and LSHTM colleagues to explore and refine analyses and discuss results.

Further information about workshops

Workshop 14: HIV Incidence and sexual behaviour (2) (Entebbe, March 2019)

Training: Data integration with Pentaho and Centres in a Box (Durban, November 2017)

Meeting: Wellcome Biomedical Resource grant planning meeting (Nairobi, October 2017)

Workshop 13: HIV Incidence and risk factors (1) (Zanzibar, April 2016)
Workshop 12: HIV as a determinant of child mobility (Entebbe, December 2014)
Workshop 11: Mortality and the care and treatment cascade (Durban, February 2014)
Workshop 10: Fertility writing (Johannesburg, February 2013)
Workshop 9: Mortality writing (Mwanza, July 2012)
Workshop 8: Verbal Autopsy Analysis (Kisumu, October 2011)
Workshop 7: HIV & Fertility (Mwanza, April 2011)
Workshop 6: Consolidation of Incidence and Prevalence estimates (Entebbe, November 2010)

UNAIDS: Sponsored special meeting on concurrent partnerships (Mwanza, December 2009)
Workshop 5: Uptake of VCT and ART (Karonga, November 2008)
Workshop 4: Sexual behaviour and marriage (Manicaland, September 2007)
Workshop 3: HIV Mortality (Uganda, November 2006)
Workshop 2: Family Demography (South Africa, June 2006)
Workshop 1: Age patterns of incidence and age patterns of HIV infection (Mwanza, October 2005)

Workshop 1: HIV Incidence

Age patterns of incidence and age patterns of HIV infection October 2005, Mwanza, Tanzania This workshop brought together for the first time statisticians and epidemiologists responsible for demographic surveillance at each of the sites and facilitators from LSHTM. Introductory activities included short reviews of data collection at each site, and conversion of the required data …

Workshop 2: Family demography

June 2006, South Africa The second workshop , hosted by Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, enabled one group of participants to proceed with comparative analyses of the incidence data produced in the first workshop, whilst a second group began to study methods for classifying household and family structure and analysing changes in these …

Workshop 3: HIV mortality

Meta analysis, HIV incidence, comparative analysis, HIV impact of family demography, site-specific analysis, survival following HIV infection November 2006, Entebbe, Uganda The third workshop in the ALPHA network programme took place between 13-17 November 2006 and was held in Entebbe, Uganda. The workshop covered: Estimation of survival time after HIV infection (before anti-retroviral therapy) Family …

Workshop 4: Sexual behaviour and marriage

September 2007, Nyanga, Zimbabwe The fourth workshop in the ALPHA network programme was held near Nyanga in Zimbabwe from 17-21 September 2007. Twenty eight people attended the workshop with representatives from all ALPHA sites and two visitors from the MDICP project in Malawi. The topics for this workshop were marriage and sexual behaviour. Areas of …

Workshop 5: Update of VCT and ART

November 2008, Mzuzu, Malawi The fifth workshop was held in Mzuzu, Malawi in November 2008. Participants from KPS, Manicaland, Masaka, MDICP, RHSP and Tazama worked on analyses of: Access to VCT Estimating ART need Uptake of ART Impact of ART on mortality Workshop outputs Work continued on the analyses started at the workshop and several …

UNAIDS sponsored special workshop on concurrent partnerships

December 2009, Mwanza, Tanzania This special workshop was held in Mwanza, Tanzania in December 2009. The workshop was convened by UNAIDS to look at methods for measuring sexual behaviour with particular relevance to the understanding of concurrent partnerships. In addition to participants from existing ALPHA sites the workshop was attended by representatives from sites planning …

Workshop 6: Consolidation of incidence and prevalence estimates

November 2010, Entebbe, Uganda The sixth workshop was hosted in Entebbe by the Rakai study and was the first workshop of our second funding phase. We welcomed four new member studies who joined the network at this point: Kisumu and Nairobi from Kenya, Ifakara from Tanzania, and Agincourt from South Africa. The new member sites had …

Workshop 7: HIV & Fertility

April 2011, Mwanza, Tanzania An examination of the bio-social and behavioural impacts of HIV on fertility will: Measure age-specific fertility differences between HIV infected and uninfected women Estimate contributions of widowhood and separation as opposed to condom use and contraception to fertility reduction in infected women Assess whether knowledge of HIV status (of self and/or …

Workshop 8: Verbal autopsy analysis

October 2011, Kisumu, Kenya The eighth ALPHA workshop, on analysing Verbal Autopsy (VA) data was held in October 2011 in Kisumu, Kenya hosted by CDC/KEMRI. The workshop investigated how well AIDS deaths are identified by the VA questionnaire instruments, whether these are interpreted manually by physicians, or automatically processed by software that assigns a probability score …

Workshop 9: Mortality attributable to HIV

Moshi, Tanzania, July 2012 The focus of this workshop was to estimate the proportion of deaths attributable to HIV using mortality rates by HIV status combined with information from verbal autopsies (VA). The results from this workshop were being prepared for publication in a special issue of Global Health Action.

Workshop 10: HIV and Child Mobility

HIV as a determinant of child mobility February 2014, Durban, South Africa To enhance knowledge of child fostering patterns, and ways in which children are affected by increased rates of marital dissolution in the wake of the HIV epidemic, we will: calculate age-specific proportions of children living apart from their parents, classified by sex and …

Workshop 11: Child Mortality and Paediatric HIV

Child mortality and paediatric HIV February 2014, Durban, South Africa. The workshop was hosted by the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies. This study will be conducted with the joint participation of specialist birth cohorts in which children’s HIV status has been determined more accurately and frequently than has been possible in community-based cohorts. …

Workshop 12 – HIV as a determinant of child mobility

December 2014, Entebbe, Uganda Background The advent of HIV treatment creates new opportunities and challenges for measuring health and welfare children and adolescents who live with HIV, either HIV-infected themselves or as the children of HIV-infected parents. Questions include: the size of the treatment gap for HIV-infected children; mortality patterns among children who do not receive …