Across the Miles: Process and Impacts of Collaboration with a Rural Community Advisory Board in HIV Research.

Background: Project Education and Access to Services and Testing (EAST) worked with a community advisory board (CAB) to (1) identify individual-level, provider-level, and community-level factors influencing attitudes about human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and HIV/acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome (AIDS) research and (2) develop and test a community-based HIV clinical trials educational intervention in six rural counties in the Southeast.

Objectives: We describe the processes and impact of forming and collaborating with a rural, multicommunity CAB.

Methods: CAB members included community leaders, providers, and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).

Development of a multilevel intervention to increase HIV clinical trial participation among rural minorities.

Minorities are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS in the rural Southeast; therefore, it is important to develop targeted, culturally appropriate interventions to support rural minority participation in HIV/AIDS research. Using intervention mapping, we developed a comprehensive multilevel intervention for service providers (SPs) and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). The authors collected data from both groups through 11 focus groups and 35 individual interviews.

Community-based HIV clinical trials: an integrated approach in underserved, rural, minority communities.

Background: Although racial and ethnic minorities have disproportionately high rates of HIV infection, these groups are underrepresented in HIV-related clinical trials. This illustrates the need for more innovation in attempts to engage underrepresented populations in calls for interdisciplinary and translational research.

Objectives: Eleven focus groups and 35 interviews were conducted with people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) to explore the perspectives of rural community leaders, service providers, and PLWHA about bringing HIV-related research, including clinical trials, into rural communities.

Acceptability of a mobile health unit for rural HIV clinical trial enrollment and participation.

Few rural minorities participate in HIV clinical trials. Mobile health units (MHUs) may be one strategy to increase participation. We explored community perceptions of MHU acceptability to increase clinical trial participation for rural minorities living with HIV/AIDS.

HIV interventions to reduce HIV/AIDS stigma: a systematic review.

We reviewed the literature to determine the effectiveness of HIV-related interventions in reducing HIV/AIDS stigma. Studies selected had randomized controlled trial (RCT), pretest-posttest with a non-randomized control group, or pretest-posttest one group study designs in which HIV-related interventions were being evaluated, and in which HIV/AIDS stigma was one of the outcomes being measured. A checklist was used to extract data from accepted studies, assess their internal validity, and overall quality.

Silent endurance and profound loneliness: socioemotional suffering in African Americans living with HIV in the rural south.

We explored how community responses to HIV contribute to distress in African Americans living with HIV in the rural South of the United States. We listened to the voices of community members through focus groups and African Americans with HIV through interviews. Community avoidance of HIV, negative views of HIV, and discriminatory behavior powerfully affected the distress of people living with HIV (PLWH).

A conceptual model exploring the relationship between HIV stigma and implementing HIV clinical trials in rural communities of North Carolina.

Background: HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects minority groups in the United States, especially in the rural southeastern states. Poverty and lack of access to HIV care, including clinical trials, are prevalent in these areas and contribute to HIV stigma. This is the first study to develop a conceptual model exploring the relationship between HIV stigma and the implementation of HIV clinical trials in rural contexts to help improve participation in those trials.

Views of young, rural African Americans of the role of community social institutions in HIV prevention.

Background: We explored rural African American youths' perceptions about the role of community social institutions in addressing HIV.

Methods: We conducted four focus groups with African Americans aged 16 to 24 years in two rural counties in North Carolina. Groups were stratified by gender and risk status.

In their own voices: rural African American youth speak out about community-based HIV prevention interventions.

Background: The HIV epidemic is a major public health problem in the United States, particularly among rural African American adolescents and young adults.

Objectives: We sought to explore young, rural African American's perspectives about key programmatic components to consider when designing youth-targeted, community- based HIV prevention interventions.

Methods: We report data from four focus groups with adolescents and young adults aged 16 to 24 (n = 38) conducted as part of a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project designed to develop multilevel HIV risk reduction interventions in two rural North Carolina communities with high HIV rates.

In their own voices: rural African-American youth speak out about community-based HIV prevention interventions.

Background: The HIV epidemic is a major public health problem in the United States, particularly among rural African American adolescents and young adults.

Objectives: We sought to explore young, rural African American’s perspectives about key programmatic components to consider when designing youth-targeted, community-based HIV prevention interventions.

Methods: We report data from four focus groups with adolescents and young adults aged 16 to 24 ( = 38) conducted as part of a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project designed to develop multilevel HIV risk reduction interventions in two rural North Carolina communities with high HIV rates.

A gender approach to work ability and its relationship to professional and domestic work hours among nursing personnel.

The association between working hours and work ability was examined in a cross-sectional study of male (N=156) and female (N=1092) nurses in three public hospitals. Working hours were considered in terms of their professional and domestic hours per week and their combined impact; total work load. Logistic regression analysis showed a significant association between total work load and inadequate work ability index (WAI) for females only.