What works to prevent HIV among heterosexual African-Americans?

Behavioral HIV prevention interventions targeting heterosexual African Americans that are proven to work require several key characteristics, according to UCSF researchers.

"Peer education, skills training and cultural tailoring were critical factors we found in interventions that reduced HIV risk behaviors and led to lower rates of sexually transmitted infections," said study lead author, Lynae Darbes, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at UCSF's Center for AIDS Prevention Studies and Global Health Sciences.

The results, published in the June 19th issue of the journal "AIDS," were based on a meta-analysis of 38 randomized controlled trials involving over 14,000 participants.

"It is important to recognize the diversity that exists within the African American community, and we are not recommending 'one size fits all' types of interventions. Successful interventions honed in on specific aspects of the target populations," said Darbes.

For instance, the social norms targeted may include influencing one's perception of being at risk for HIV in one population, delaying sexual initiation in another or reducing the number of partners in another or some combination of all of these, she said. In addition, actual members from the target population should conduct peer education.

" Cultural tailoring was crucial and in effective interventions was derived from activities such as formative research within the target community using a 'ground up' approach as opposed to a top down or 'parachute' approach. Understanding the community was important in developing efficacious interventions," said Darbes.

The study's meta-analysis focused on randomized controlled trials that measured outcomes such as changes in rates of unprotected sex, consistency of condom use or sexually transmitted infections and reported at least one outcome post intervention.

"This study shows how the technique of meta-analysis can be used to understand an entire literature and to find subtle but important associations that single studies simply can't find," said study co-author, George W. Rutherford, MD, director of UCSF Global Health Sciences Prevention and Public Health Group.

Source: University of California - San Francisco

Related stories:

Scientists find a novel mechanism that controls the development of autoimmunity
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health have found a mechanism in the immune systems of mice that can lead to the development of autoimmune disease when turned off. The findings shed light on the processes that lead to the development of autoimmunity and could also have implications for the development of drugs to increase the immune response in diseases such as cancer and HIV. The study paper appears online today in the journal Nature.
Comprehensive treatment of extensively drug-resistant TB works, study finds
The death sentence that too often accompanies a diagnosis of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) can be commuted if an individualized outpatient therapy program is followed – even in countries with limited resources and a heavy burden of TB.
When it comes to abstinence teens, adults aren't speaking the same language
Abstinence can mean different things to adolescents than to adults. That's one reason why abstinence-only programs do not have strong effects in preventing teenage sexual activity, according to new University of Washington research.
Black girls who abuse alcohol less likely to use condoms
Black girls who abuse alcohol are more likely to have unprotected sex despite having participated in interventions that stressed the importance of consistent condom use.
Study highlights risky behavior, lack of care among HIV-infected crack users
Doctors who treat HIV-infected crack users refer to them as "the forgotten population." A study being presented at this week's International AIDS Conference in Mexico City reveals that these patients frequently lack outpatient health care, do not receive life-saving antiretroviral therapy and continue to engage in risky sexual behavior that likely contributes to HIV transmission.
Deportation linked to higher risk of HIV infection in male injection drug users
Male injection drug users deported from the United States to Tijuana have four-fold higher odds of HIV infection compared to those living in Tijuana who were not deported there, according to a study to be presented at the International AIDS Conference on August 5, 2008 in Mexico City. The study, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will be published in the July 30 issue of the Public Library of Science (PLoS) One.
HIV prevention researchers to compare common ARV as a pill and vaginal gel in unique study
In battle with an epidemic that has outpaced nearly all efforts to contain it, researchers are turning to strategies centered on the same antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that have been used successfully to treat HIV in hopes they will be as effective a stronghold for preventing the virus.
Educational video in clinic waiting rooms reduces new sexually transmitted infections
A video-based waiting room intervention, Safe in the City, lowers STD incidence among STD clinic patients, new CDC data find. In a controlled trial, the Safe in the City research group found that patients who were exposed to a 23-minute HIV/STD prevention video had nearly a 10% reduction in new infections compared with those who were not exposed to the video.

News discussion:

Medicine & Health news