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.

Evidence-Based Strategies for Shortening Informed Consent Forms in Clinical Research.

Long informed consent forms (ICFs) remain commonplace, yet they can negatively affect potential participants' understanding of clinical research. We aimed to build consensus among six groups of key stakeholders on advancing the use of shorter ICFs in clinical research. Partnering with the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), we used a modified Delphi process with semistructured interviews and online surveys.

Concurrency and Other Sexual Risk Behaviors Among Black Young Adults in a Southeastern City.

Black Americans continue to have higher rates of HIV disease than other races/ethnicities. Conventional individual-level risk behaviors do not fully account for these racial/ethnic disparities. Sexual concurrency may help explain them.

HIV Testing Experience and Risk Behavior Among Sexually Active Black Young Adults: A CBPR-Based Study Using Respondent-Driven Sampling in Durham, North Carolina.

African Americans are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic inclusive of men who have sex with men, heterosexual men, and women. As part of a community-based participatory research study we assessed HIV testing experience among sexually active 18-30 year old Black men and women in Durham, NC. Of 508 participants, 173 (74 %) men and 236 (86 %; p = 0.

Observational study of the acceptability of Sayana® Press among intramuscular DMPA users in Uganda and Senegal.

Background: Sayana® Press (SP), a subcutaneous formulation of depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) in Uniject™, has potential to be a valuable innovation in family planning (FP) because it may overcome logistic and safety challenges in delivering intramuscular DMPA (DMPA IM). However, SP's acceptability is unknown. We measured acceptability of SP among DMPA IM users.

Provider acceptability of Sayana® Press: results from community health workers and clinic-based providers in Uganda and Senegal.

Background: Sayana® Press (SP), a subcutaneous formulation of depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) in Uniject™, has potential to be a valuable innovation in family planning (FP) because it may overcome logistic and safety challenges in delivering intramuscular DMPA (DMPA IM). However, SP's acceptability is unknown. We measured acceptability of SP among clinic-based providers (Senegal only) and community health workers.

No sex for science? Formative research on the acceptability and feasibility of a true contraceptive efficacy clinical trial.

Background: Recruitment challenges and restrictions on intercourse frequency and timing have stymied previous attempts to implement true contraceptive efficacy clinical trials.

Study Design: Qualitative research was conducted in Madagascar, South Africa, and the United States to explore the acceptability of three potential true contraceptive efficacy study designs and the feasibility of recruitment for such trials, including characteristics of potential participants who may be willing to join.

Results: Participants preferred the study design with the least restrictive sex criteria: participants have sex with assigned contraceptive method/no method on days around ovulation and use condoms on other days.