LUNDA, Christopher2024-02-152024-02-152023http://localhost:4000/handle/123456789/222Research Report Public HealthIn 2020 alone, The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) reported that, 410,000 young people between the ages of 10 to 24 were newly infected with HIV, of whom 150,000 were adolescents aged 10 and 19. However, biomedical approaches to HIV prevention offers new opportunities for slowing the HIV/AIDS epidemic among populations at risk of contracting HIV. In sub-Saharan Africa, PrEP has been accepted as a biomedical intervention for HIV prevention and is being offered as combination with other prevention interventions. Therefore, this research stresses to determine factors influencing PrEP retention among adolescent girls and young women at Kapata Urban Clinic of Chipata in Eastern Province of Zambia. Based on the literature on PrEP uptake and adherence and the socioecological model theory, explorative qualitative research was done at Kapata Urban Clinic in Chipata District of Eastern Province. A semi-structured interview guide was administered using Focus Group Discussion and Individual interview of Adolescent Girls and Young Women, Facility Based Volunteers and the Health Providers. The results gathered from the focus group discussion and individual interview was analysed and categorised into three major themes Individual Factors which includes, education, stigma, preference of HIV prevention method, and side effects; Socioeconomic Factors that included, Social Cash Transfer, Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), and Discrimination; Institutional Factors, Confidentiality, Client Waiting Time, Integration of Services, Customer Care Services, Provider Competency, and Differentiated Service Delivery Models. The majority of the findings from the research and related studies were institutional factors for example limited PrEP access points, compromised confidentiality, and Intimate Partner Violence. Therefore, additional studies are needed to address research gaps including client care services and Intimate Partner Violence.en-USThesis