Purpose: Inaccurate beliefs about medication abortion (MA) are common. This study evaluated pilot data from a community-led media intervention designed to increase MA knowledge among Black and Latinx women in Georgia.
Methods: Participants (=855) viewed the intervention video and completed pre-post surveys.
Traditional family planning research has excluded Black and Latinx leaders, and little is known about medication abortion (MA) among racial/ethnic minorities, although it is an increasingly vital reproductive health service, particularly after the fall of . Reproductive justice (RJ) community-based organisation (CBO) SisterLove led a study on Black and Latinx women's MA perceptions and experiences in Georgia. From April 2019 to December 2020, we conducted key informant interviews with 20 abortion providers and CBO leaders and 32 in-depth interviews and 6 focus groups ( = 30) with Black and Latinx women.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: While pregnant people have been an important focus for HIV research, critical evidence gaps remain regarding prevention, co-infection, and safety and efficacy of new antiretroviral therapies in pregnancy. Such gaps can result in harm: without safety data, drugs used may carry unacceptable risks to the foetus or pregnant person; without pregnancy-specific dosing data, pregnant people face risks of both toxicity and undertreatment; and delays in gathering evidence can limit access to beneficial next-generation drugs. Despite recognition of the need, numerous barriers and ethical complexities have limited progress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAIDS Res Hum Retroviruses
January 2022
Despite disproportionate incidence and prevalence of HIV among transgender individuals, cisgender women, and racial and ethnic minority groups, all remain underrepresented in HIV cure research. As HIV cure trials are scaled up, there is emerging research on ways to mitigate risks of HIV acquisition for sexual partners of analytical treatment interruption (ATI) trial participants. As such, it is imperative that HIV cure researchers consider the implications of implementing ATIs in populations that are disproportionately affected by HIV, but largely underrepresented in trials to date.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Healthy Love is a brief, highly interactive, single-session, group-level HIV prevention intervention designed for African American women that is effective at reducing sex risk behaviors and increasing condom use and HIV testing among participants. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, through a contract, developed a user-friendly intervention package that would allow organizations to adopt and implement Healthy Love with fidelity.
Method: Training and implementation materials were developed to support original research protocols, and piloted and revised to conduct field-testing with case study agencies (CSAs).
Background: We sought to understand the multilevel syndemic factors that are concurrently contributing to the HIV epidemic among women living in the US. We specifically examined community, network, dyadic, and individual factors to explain HIV vulnerability within a socioecological framework.
Methods: We gathered qualitative data (120 interviews and 31 focus groups) from a subset of women ages 18-44 years (N = 2,099) enrolled in the HPTN 064 HIV seroincidence estimation study across 10 US communities.
Background: Recent studies have demonstrated that high human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence (2.1%) rates exist in "high-risk areas" of US cities that are comparable to rates in developing nations. Community-based interventions (CBIs) have demonstrated potential for improving HIV testing in these areas, thereby facilitating early entry and engagement in the HIV continuum of care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeterosexual non-Hispanic black women in the United States are far more affected than women of other races or ethnicities by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). SisterLove, Inc., a community-based organization in Atlanta, Georgia, responded to this disparity early in the epidemic by creating the Healthy Love HIV and sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention intervention in 1989.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe AIDS epidemic has been fueled by global inequities. Ranging from sexual inequality and underdevelopment to homophobia impeding health care access for men who have sex with men, imbalanced resource allocations, and social biases have potentiated the spread of the epidemic. However, recognition of culturally specific aspects of each microepidemic has yielded development of community-based organizations, which have resulted in locally effective responses to AIDS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Acquir Immune Defic Syndr
December 2010
HIV prevention services have succeeded in limiting HIV incidence in the United States but have not prevented HIV from becoming a devastating epidemic in the communities most affected. The National HIV/AIDS Strategy represents an important opportunity to improve domestic HIV prevention efforts and to begin to reduce HIV incidence over time. Elements that are essential to improving HIV incidence outcomes include greater transparency and accountability in use of HIV prevention funds; scaling up programming for those most at risk; fostering and evaluating community-based HIV prevention efforts; and looking beyond individual behavior change programming by putting a greater emphasis on structural, network, and policy interventions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSisterLove Inc., a community-based organization (CBO) in Atlanta, Georgia, evaluated the efficacy of its highly interactive, single-session HIV prevention intervention for black women, the Healthy Love Workshop (HLW). HLW is delivered to pre-existing groups of women (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the United States, the number and proportion of HIV/AIDS cases among black/African Americans continue to highlight the need for new biomedical prevention interventions, including an HIV vaccine, microbicide, or new antiretroviral (ARV) prevention strategies such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to complement existing condom usage, harm reduction methods, and behavioral change strategies to stem the HIV epidemic. Although black/African Americans are disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS, their participation in HIV clinical research continues to have unique challenges. We theorize that interaction among multilevel factors creates ideal alignment for minority participation in HIV clinical studies.
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