Kara Wools‐Kaloustian

Biographic Data

ID6764190
NAMEKara Wools‐Kaloustian
GIVEN NAMESKara
FAMILY NAMEWools‐Kaloustian
SIGNATUREKALOUSTIAN K W
AFFILIATIONSIndiana University School of Medicine
ORCID0000-0002-3277-4452
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS14
TOTAL CITATIONS3
AUTHOR COUNT14
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2006
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX1

  • Perspectives on enhancing peer support services for mothers living with HIV in Kenya

    Open AccessJames G Carlucci, Rosa Chemwey Ndiema et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2026

    Mentor Mother (MM) services are an evidenced-based peer support strategy embedded within prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programs. The current MM strategy in Kenya provides monthly, facility-based, one-size-fits-all antiretroviral therapy adherence counselling and health education to women living with HIV (WLHIV) who are navigating PMTCT services. MMs receive a small monthly stipend as compensation for providing these se…

  • Social relationships, mental health, and stigma

    Open AccessSarah Obatsa, Adel Mburia-Mwalili et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2026

    The disclosure of one’s HIV-positive status is a personal decision that can play an important role in engagement in HIV treatment and care. Social network approaches situate individuals within broader webs of social connections that influence health and wellbeing and thus hold the potential to elucidate key social factors shaping the process of disclosure. As part of a larger clinical study examining how substance use and mental health shape HIV …

  • Adaptation of the Client Diagnostic Questionnaire for East Africa

    Open AccessEdith Kamaru Kwobah, Suzanne Goodrich et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2024

    Research increasingly involves cross-cultural work with non-English-speaking populations, necessitating translation and cultural validation of research tools. This paper describes the process of translating and criterion validation of the Client Diagnostic Questionnaire (CDQ) for use in a multisite study in Kenya and Uganda. The English CDQ was translated into Swahili, Dholuo (Kenya) and Runyankole/Rukiga (Uganda) by expert translators. The trans…

  • Effects of Alcohol Use on Patient Retention in HIV Care in East Africa

    Open AccessAlexa Monroy, Suzanne Goodrich et al.ARTICLEAIDS and Behavior2024

    We sought to investigate the association between hazardous alcohol use and gaps in care for people living with HIV over a long-term follow-up period. Adults who had participated in our previously published Phase I study of hazardous alcohol use at HIV programs in Kenya and Uganda were eligible at their 42 to 48 month follow-up visit. Those who re-enrolled were followed for an additional ~ 12 months. Hazardous alcohol use behavior was measured usi…

  • A Global Health Reciprocal Innovation grant programme

    Open AccessLaura J Ruhl, Jepchirchir Kiplagat et al.ARTICLEBMJ Global Health2023

    Unilateral approaches to global health innovations can be transformed into cocreative, uniquely collaborative relationships between low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HIC), constituted as ‘reciprocal innovation’ (RI). Since 2018, the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) and Indiana University (IU) Center for Global Health Equity have led a grants programme sculpted from the core eleme…

  • Social support and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic among a cohort of people living with HIV (PLWH) in Western Kenya

    Open AccessAdel Mburia-Mwalili, K D Wagner et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2023

    As coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic in 2020, countries around the world implemented various prevention strategies, such as banning of public and social gatherings, restriction in movement, etc. These efforts may have had a deleterious effect on already vulnerable populations, including people living with HIV (PLWH). PLWH were concerned about contracting COVID-19, the impact of COVID-19 on their social networks that provide s…

  • Effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on late postpartum women living with HIV in Kenya

    Open AccessJohn Humphrey, Marsha Alera et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2023

    Although an estimated 1.4 million women living with HIV (WHIV) are pregnant each year globally, data describing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on postpartum women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are limited. To address this gap, we conducted phone surveys among 170 WHIV ≥18 years and 18–24 months postpartum enrolled in HIV care at the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare in western Kenya, and assessed the effects of the…

  • Reciprocal innovation

    Open AccessThomas G Sors, Rishika Chauhan O’Brien et al.ARTICLEGlobal Public Health2022

    Global health researchers often discount mutual learning and benefit to address shared health challenges across high and low- and middle-income settings. Drawing from a 30-year partnership called AMPATH that started between Indiana University in the US and Moi University in Kenya, we describe an innovative approach and program for mutual learning and benefit coined 'reciprocal innovation.' Reciprocal innovation harnesses a bidirectional, co-const…

  • I have never talked to anyone to free my mind” – challenges surrounding status disclosure to adolescents contribute to their disengagement from HIV care

    Open AccessJudith Toromo, Judith J Toromo et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2022

    Complex challenges surrounding HIV status disclosure to adolescents contribute to care disengagement. There is need to enhance training and resources for HCW, and to empower caregivers to support children and adolescents before, during, and after HIV status disclosure. This should include counseling caregivers on how to provide children with developmentally-appropriate and accurate information about their health from an early age, and to support …

  • Retention in care and viral suppression in the PMTCT continuum at a large referral facility in western Kenya

    Open AccessJohn Humphrey, Julia Songok et al.ARTICLEAIDS and Behavior2022

    Medical records of pregnant and postpartum women living with HIV and their infants attending a large referral facility in Kenya from 2015 to 2019 were analyzed to identify characteristics associated with retention in care and viral suppression. Women were stratified based on the timing of HIV care enrollment: known HIV-positive (KHP; enrolled pre-pregnancy) and newly HIV-positive (NHP; enrolled during pregnancy). Associations with retention at 18…

  • A qualitative study of the barriers and enhancers to retention in care for pregnant and postpartum women living with HIV

    Open AccessJohn Humphrey, Danièle Maubon et al.ARTICLEPLOS Global Public Health2021

    Retention in care is a major challenge for pregnant and postpartum women living with HIV (PPHIV) in the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) continuum. However, the factors influencing retention from the perspectives of women who have become lost to follow-up (LTFU) are not well described. We explored these factors within an enhanced sub-cohort of the East Africa International Epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS Consortium. …

  • Association of Health Status and Nicotine Consumption with Sars-CoV-2 positivity rates

    Open AccessThomas J Duszynski, William F Fadel et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2021

    In a statewide, community-based population drawn for SARS-CoV-2 testing, we find that overall health status was associated with infection rates. Unlike in studies of COVID-19 patients, smoking status was inversely associated with SARS-CoV-2 positivity. More research is needed to further understand the nature of this relationship

  • Delivery of HIV care during the 2007 post-election crisis in Kenya

    Open AccessSuzanne Goodrich, Samson Ndege et al.ARTICLEConflict and Health2013

    Key lessons learned in maintaining the delivery of HIV care in a crisis situation include the importance of advance planning to develop programs that can function during a crisis, an emphasis on a rapid programmatic response, the ability of clinics to function autonomously, patient knowledge of their disease, the use of community and patient networks, addressing staff needs and developing effective patient tracking systems

  • A Needs Assessment to Build International Research Ethics Capacity

    Open AccessJohn E Sidle, Edwin Were et al.ARTICLEJournal of Empirical Research on…2006Cited by: 3

    INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATORS IN BIOMEDICAL sciences face ethical challenges in the design, review, and conduct of research. Challenges include differences in research ethics capacity, cultural differences in interpretation and application of ethical principles, and cooperation between ethics review boards at collaborating institutions. Indiana University School of Medicine (Indianapolis, USA) and Moi University Faculty of Health Sciences (Eldoret,…