Men's social networks, social norms, & family planning in Benin.

To address low family planning (FP) use and high unmet need in West Africa, attention has been paid to addressing FP-related social networks and norms. Most work focuses on women. This analysis assesses men's FP-related social networks and norms and their relation to FP use in Benin using data from baseline surveys from the Tékponon Jikuagou intervention.

Factors Associated With Delayed Contraceptive Implant Removal in Ethiopia.

Background: In 2009, the Government of Ethiopia initiated the implant scale-up initiative, which expanded contraceptive access by training health extension workers (HEWs) to insert single-rod etonogestrel contraceptive implants (Implanon) at rural health posts. Removals were provided by referrals to higher levels of the health system. However, little was known about whether women were getting their implants removed at the recommended 3-year postinsertion date or what barriers they faced to removal.

Factors associated with reported modern contraceptive use among married men in Afghanistan.

Background: Afghanistan has high maternal and infant mortality which is in part driven by high fertility and low modern contraceptive use. Using modern contraceptive methods can reduce maternal and infant mortality, however there are several barriers to modern contraceptive use in Afghanistan. Married men have the potential to hinder or facilitate their wives' contraceptive use.

Medical Providers and Harm Reduction Views on Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis for HIV Prevention Among People Who Inject Drugs.

Despite high pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) acceptability among people who inject drugs (PWID) and PrEP providers, PrEP uptake is low and little is known about how to promote PrEP among PWID. This qualitative study with providers in North Carolina explored views on PrEP delivery approaches for PWID. Interviewers conducted semistructured interviews with 10 PrEP providers and 10 harm reduction (HR) providers.

Getting to intent: Are social norms influencing intentions to use modern contraception in the DRC?

Meeting the reproductive health needs of women in post-conflict settings is a global health priority. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, social norms perpetuate gender-based violence and contribute to low contraceptive use and high fertility. The Masculinité, Famille, et Foi (MFF) intervention is working with communities in Kinshasa to create normative environments supportive of modern contraception access and use.

Scaling-up Normative Change Interventions for Adolescent and Youth Reproductive Health: An Examination of the Evidence.

Adolescent and youth reproductive health (AYRH) outcomes are influenced by factors beyond individual control. Increasingly, interventions are seeking to influence community-level normative change to support healthy AYRH behaviors. While evidence is growing of the effectiveness of AYRH interventions that include normative change components, understanding on how to achieve scale-up and wider impact of these programs remains limited.

Rapid organizational network analysis to assess coordination of services for HIV testing clients: an exploratory study.

Recognizing that HIV testing provides a gateway opportunity to connect with at-risk populations, we explored an approach to collect, analyze and present data on the network of connections between HIV testing organizations and other health and social service agencies operating in Durham County, NC. We surveyed 26 health and social service organizations, including 6 providing HIV testing services, and presented the results including frequency tabulations, network visualizations and metrics, and GIS maps to the participating organizations. Mapping the landscape of organizational relationships was seen as a practical and expedient approach to facilitating cross-sector collaborative efforts to improve community health.

Assessing prevalence of missed laboratory-confirmed sexually transmitted infections among women in Kingston, Jamaica: results from a secondary analysis of the Sino-Implant clinical trial.

Objectives: To assess potentially missed sexually transmitted infections (STIs), we compared clinically diagnosed STIs to laboratory-confirmed diagnoses of gonorrhoea (GC), chlamydia (CT) and trichomonas (Tvag).

Design: Secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial.

Setting: We used data and specimens previously collected for the Sino-Implant Study in Kingston, Jamaica.

QUENTIN: reconstruction of disease transmissions from viral quasispecies genomic data.

Motivation: Genomic analysis has become one of the major tools for disease outbreak investigations. However, existing computational frameworks for inference of transmission history from viral genomic data often do not consider intra-host diversity of pathogens and heavily rely on additional epidemiological data, such as sampling times and exposure intervals. This impedes genomic analysis of outbreaks of highly mutable viruses associated with chronic infections, such as human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C virus, whose transmissions are often carried out through minor intra-host variants, while the additional epidemiological information often is either unavailable or has a limited use.

Measurement of Social Norms Affecting Modern Contraceptive Use: A Literature Review.

As a critical building block to developing social norms interventions to support healthy family planning and other reproductive health behaviors, we conducted a literature review to identify and evaluate social norm measures related to modern contraceptive use. Of 174 articles reviewed in full, only 17 studies met our criteria for inclusion. Across these articles, no single measure of norms was used in more than one study; failure to specify the boundaries of who was engaging in and influencing the behaviors of interest contributed to the variation.

Prevalence and risk factors associated with STIs among women initiating contraceptive implants in Kingston, Jamaica.

Background: There is limited information on rates of STIs in Jamaica due to syndromic management and limited aetiological surveillance. We examined the prevalence of (CT), (NG) and (TV) and characteristics associated with STIs among sexually active women who participated in a randomised trial of a progestin implant initiation in Jamaica (the Sino-Implant Study (SIS)).

Methods: SIS was a randomised trial conducted in Kingston, Jamaica, from 2012 to 2014 to evaluate whether initiation of the Sino-Implant (II) led to more unprotected sex among women ages 18-44 years.

Sexual Relationship Power and Semen Exposure Among Female Patients at a Sexually Transmitted Infection Clinic in Kingston, Jamaica.

Women's power in sexual relationships is thought to be an important predictor of condom use. However, research on correlates of condom use often relies on participant reporting of behavior, which has questionable validity. We evaluated the association between scores from the modified Sexual Relationship Power Scale (SRPS-M) and biological detection of semen exposure in a prospective study of adult women attending a sexually transmitted infection clinic in Kingston, Jamaica with cervicitis or abnormal vaginal discharge in 2010-2011.

On the road again: concurrency and condom use among Uganda truck drivers.

Long-distance truck drivers have been shown to be a critical population in the spread of HIV in Africa. In 2009, surveys with 385 Ugandan long-distance truck drivers measured concurrency point prevalence with two methods; it ranged from 37.4% (calendar-method) to 50.

Effects of initiating a contraceptive implant on subsequent condom use: A randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To evaluate whether initiation of a contraceptive implant, a method of long-acting reversible contraception, reduces condom use, as measured by a biomarker of recent semen exposure [prostate-specific antigen (PSA)].

Study Design: We conducted a randomized controlled clinical trial in which 414 Jamaican women at high risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) attending family planning clinics received the contraceptive implant at baseline ("immediate" insertion arm, N=208) or at the end ("delayed" insertion arm, N=206) of a 3-month study period. Participants were tested for PSA at baseline and two follow-up study visits and were asked about their sexual activity and condom use.

Assortativity coefficient-based estimation of population patterns of sexual mixing when cluster size is informative.

Objectives: Population sexual mixing patterns can be quantified using Newman's assortativity coefficient (r). Suggested methods for estimating the SE for r may lead to inappropriate statistical conclusions in situations where intracluster correlation is ignored and/or when cluster size is predictive of the response. We describe a computer-intensive, but highly accessible, within-cluster resampling approach for providing a valid large-sample estimated SE for r and an associated 95% CI.

Exploring discordance between biologic and self-reported measures of semen exposure: a qualitative study among female patients attending an STI clinic in Jamaica.

We explored the use of qualitative interviews to discuss discrepancies between two sources of information on unprotected sex: biomarker results and self-reported survey data. The study context was a randomized trial in Kingston, Jamaica examining the effect of STI counseling messages on recent sexual behavior using prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as the primary study outcome. Twenty women were interviewed.

Correlation of prospective and cross-sectional measures of HIV type 1 incidence in a higher-risk cohort in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

The primary aim of this study was to estimate HIV incidence within a high-risk population in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam using both cross-sectional and prospective methodologies. A secondary aim was to develop a local correction factor for the BED and avidity index incidence assays. The research study design consisted of three phases: (1) cross-sectional, (2) prospective, and (3) BED false recent (BED FR).

Empiricism and theorizing in epidemiology and social network analysis.

The connection between theory and data is an iterative one. In principle, each is informed by the other: data provide the basis for theory that in turn generates the need for new information. This circularity is reflected in the notion of abduction, a concept that focuses on the space between induction (generating theory from data) and deduction (testing theory with data).

'We are ordinary men': MSM identity categories in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Men who have sex with men remain largely absent from the health statistics of many Eastern European countries. This relative dearth compared to other parts of the world may be attributed to the generally hidden nature of this population. The tendency to employ Western sexual identity labels, rather than locally meaningful categories of identity, may also make it difficult to identify men who have sex with other men.

Racial differences in acquisition of syringes from pharmacies under conditions of legal but restricted sales.

Background: Injecting drug users (IDUs) are at increased risk of acquiring and transmitting HIV and other bloodborne pathogens through the multi-person use of syringes. Although research has shown that increased access to syringes through syringe exchange programs (SEPs) is an effective strategy to reduce risky injection practices many areas of the United States still do not have SEPs. In the absence of SEPs, legislation allowing pharmacies over-the-counter sales of syringes has also been shown to reduce syringe sharing.

Behaviorally bisexual men and their risk behaviors with men and women.

Gay and bisexual men are often treated as a homogenous group; however, there may be important differences between them. In addition, behaviorally bisexual men are a potential source of HIV infection for heterosexual women. In this study, we compared 97 men who have sex with men only (MSM) to 175 men who have sex with men and women (MSMW).

Secrecy and risk among MSM in Tbilisi, Georgia.

There is concern that the tremendous economic, social, and political upheavals that the Republic of Georgia has undergone in the years since the fall of the Soviet Union may have created an environment fertile for HIV transmission. Notably absent from official statistics and HIV-related research in Georgia is discussion of men who have sex with men (MSM) and, therefore, little is known about the MSM population or its potential to acquire or transmit HIV. Data were collected from 30 MSM recruited through a testing and counseling center in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.

Effects of a hepatitis C virus educational intervention or a motivational intervention on alcohol use, injection drug use, and sexual risk behaviors among injection drug users.

Objectives: We compared the effects of 2 interventions on alcohol use, use of a new syringe at last injection, and condom use at last sexual encounter in a community sample of injection drug users.

Methods: Between 2003 and 2006, 851 out-of-treatment injection drug users were recruited in Raleigh, NC, and Durham, NC, through street outreach and were randomly assigned to either a 6-session educational intervention or a 6-session motivational intervention. Intervention effects were examined at 6 and 12 months after enrollment.