HIV Ed: A Global Perspective

Author(s):  
Ralph J. DiClemente ◽  
Nihari Patel

At the end of 2016, there were approximately 36.7 million people living with HIV worldwide with 1.6 million people being newly infected. In the same year, 1 million people died from HIV-related causes globally. The vast prevalence of HIV calls for an urgent need to develop and implement prevention programs aimed at reducing risk behaviors. Bronfenbrenner’s socio-ecological model provides an organizing framework to discuss HIV prevention interventions implemented at the individual, relational, community, and societal level. Historically, many interventions in the field of public health have targeted the individual level. Individual-level interventions promote behavior change by enhancing HIV knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs and by motivating the adoption of preventative behaviors. Relational-level interventions focus on behavior change by using peers, partners, or family members to encourage HIV-preventative practices. At the community-level, prevention interventions aim to reduce HIV vulnerability by changing HIV-risk behaviors within schools, workplaces, or neighborhoods. Lastly, societal interventions attempt to change policies and laws to enable HIV-preventative practices. While previous interventions implemented in each of these domains have proven to be effective, a multipronged approach to HIV prevention is needed such that it tackles the complex interplay between the individual and their social and physical environment. Ideally, a multipronged intervention strategy would consist of interventions at different levels that complement each other to synergistically reinforce risk reduction while simultaneously creating an environment that promotes behavior change. Multilevel interventions provide a promising avenue for researchers and program developers to consider all levels of influences on an individual’s behavior and design a comprehensive HIV risk-reduction program.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 824-824
Author(s):  
Andre Brown ◽  
Mark Brennan-Ing ◽  
Steven Meanley ◽  
Sabina Haberlen ◽  
Deanna Ware ◽  
...  

Abstract Psychological sense of community (PSOC) in Black men who have sex with men (BMSM) may facilitate condom and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use to prevent HIV transmission. Understanding BMSM’s PSOC contribution to HIV risk reduction may inform HIV prevention efforts for this population, that is disproportionately affected by HIV. Adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and HIV status, we conducted logistic regressions to test the association between PSOC and condom use among aging BMSM (n=176). Multivariate analyses exhibited no association between PSOC and condom use (AOR= 0.994, 95% CI= 0.942, 1.049). HIV+ participants had higher condom use odds compared to HIV- participants (AOR= 4.031, 95% CI= 1.723, 9.426). A sub-analysis of HIV- participants (n=61), showed no associated between PSOC and PrEP use (AOR= 1.002, 95% CI= 0.904, 1.112). These results have implications for secondary HIV prevention and future research on alternative aspects of social support that may increase BMSM’s HIV risk reduction behaviors.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 600-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason W. Mitchell ◽  
Ji-Young Lee ◽  
Cory Woodyatt ◽  
José Bauermeister ◽  
Patrick Sullivan ◽  
...  

A sexual agreement is an explicit mutual understanding made between two partners about which sexual and relational behaviors they agree to engage in within and/or outside of their relationship. Factors that prompt male couples to form a sexual agreement and under what circumstances remain underinvestigated, yet are important considerations for development of couples-based sexual health and HIV prevention interventions. By using thematic analysis with qualitative dyadic data from a convenience sample of 29 HIV-negative male couples, the present study sought to describe the timing and investigate the context and circumstances that led male couples to establish a sexual agreement in their relationship at both the individual and couple levels, and by agreement type. Themes identified for when a sexual agreement was formed included within the first 6 months, and after 6 months in the relationship. Themes related to context and circumstances of couples’ sexual agreement formation were as follows: (a) desire for sexual exploration, (b) arisen circumstances or events with other men, (c) influences from past relationship(s) and/or other couples (i.e., peers), (d) to protect against HIV, and (e) purposeful conversations versus understood. Findings suggest HIV prevention efforts should include skill-building exercises to help improve communication and promote sex positivity within male couples’ relationships.


2003 ◽  

In April 2003, the Horizons Program sponsored a one-day technical meeting to develop and set priorities for an operations research agenda to study effective behavior change strategies for HIV risk reduction, particularly those that focus on the “ABC” behaviors: abstinence or delaying sex, being faithful or partner reduction, and condom use. Representatives from more than 20 organizations and programs involved in prevention research and programming discussed epidemiological, behavioral, psychosocial, and structural factors that may help determine the effectiveness of promoting the ABCs and other prevention programs. During the meeting, specific opportunities for collaborations and areas of particular interest for each group were discussed, with the goal of permitting each organization to focus on its strengths while working together toward similar outcomes. As noted in this report, the Horizons partnership plans to pursue some of the key operations research questions that were identified by the technical experts.


Author(s):  
Mary Ann Cohen ◽  
Harold W. Goforth

Since HIV disease was first recognized three decades ago, numerous efforts have been made to prevent its continued transmission. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than 56,000 Americans become infected each year—one person every 9 1/2 minutes—and that more than one million people in this country are now living with HIV (CDC, 2008, 2009;Hall et al., 2008). The CDC estimates that roughly 1 in 5 people infected with HIV in the United States is unaware of his or her infection and may be unknowingly transmitting the virus to others (CDC, 2008). Over the past 15 years, many behavioral HIV risk reduction interventions have been developed, with prevention efforts targeting mostly HIV-negative individuals and focusing almost exclusively on HIV testing and counseling. More recently, comprehensive HIV prevention has involved both primary and secondary prevention activities to decrease the number of new HIV infections and associated complications, respectively (Marks et al., 2006; O’Leary and Wolitski, 2009). Psychiatric factors both complicate and perpetuate the HIV pandemic as a result of unsafe sexual practices and substance use disorders. In this chapter, we describe some of the psychiatric and psychodynamic factors that lead to HIV transmission and present novel strategies to assist clinicians and health-care policymakers in prevention efforts. Primary prevention is defined as any activity that reduces the burden of morbidity or mortality from disease; it is to be distinguished from secondary prevention, in which activities are designed to prevent the complications of already existing disease. In the case of HIV, primary prevention efforts focus on strategies designed to prevent the transmission of HIV—keeping seronegative people seronegative. In the HIV pandemic, however, many prevention strategies share characteristics of both primary and secondary efforts, so the distinction is somewhat artificial. Multiple prevention strategies have been devised, and these center around HIV counseling, substance abuse programs, and HIV prevention and intervention programs for children. Counseling healthy pregnant women, uninfected children, adolescents, adults, and older persons about HIV risk reduction and providing information about sexual health are important components to primary prevention strategies, but few physicians and other clinicians actually do this unless it is a part of a program specifically designed to prevent HIV transmission.


2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (S1) ◽  
pp. 17-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly A. Koester ◽  
Andre Maiorana ◽  
Karen Vernon ◽  
Janet Myers ◽  
Carol Dawson Rose ◽  
...  

2005 ◽  
Vol 131 (6) ◽  
pp. 856-897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dolores Albarracín ◽  
Jeffrey C. Gillette ◽  
Allison N. Earl ◽  
Laura R. Glasman ◽  
Marta R. Durantini ◽  
...  

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