Individual and Organizational Characteristics of Effective Frontline Practitioner Performance: A Study of Los Angeles County HIV Testing Organizations.

Aims: This study examines the strategic contributions of three Frontline Practitioner (FP) attributes for effective HIV testing: risk assessment use, having specialized HIV training, and organizational test setting (nonprofit, forprofit, and public).

Methods: Data from 621staff in 159 organizations in Los Angeles County, are used to model individual and organizational correlates and use of risk assessment and measures of effective performance (volume of HIV tests, HIV seropositive tests, and referrals to treatment).

Results: FP with specialized training in HIV care situated in nonprofit outpatient clinics are more likely to use risk assessment.

Staff strategies for improving HIV detection using mobile HIV rapid testing.

This paper examines the performance of 13 mobile testing units (MTUs) and rapid HIV testing technology in Los Angeles County as reflected in the relationship between the cognitive strategies used by MTU staff regarding instructions to clients about picking up their test results and returning for test results, and following up with those clients who did not return, and the spatial distribution of MTUs and AIDS rates in 2003. Maps were created using geographic information systems (GIS) data on 93 MTU testing locations and 2003 AIDS cases data. MTU staff (N = 45) were interviewed and several themes were identified.

Egocentric networks of Chinese men who have sex with men: network components, condom use norms, and safer sex.

Research on risk behaviors among men who have sex with men (MSM) is often based on individualistic models of health behavior, but sexual behavior is inherently social in nature and often determined by constituents of social networks. The objective of this study was to examine relationships among social networks, network norms of condom use, and safer sex. A respondent-driven sampling study recruited 350 MSM in the Shenzhen region of China between November and December 2007 and collected information on network components (relations, structures, and functions) and HIV risk behavior among egos (those interviewed) and their network alters.

Increasing the reach of HIV testing to young Latino MSM: results of a pilot study integrating outreach and services.

Background: In the U.S., HIV infections are increasing among men who have sex with men (MSM), particularly young, racial/ethnic minority MSM.

HIV partner notification: predictors of discussion and agreements from provider reports.

This study examines organizational, provider, client, and test-event level predictors of HIV partner notification (PN) discussion and agreements based on providers' most recent HIV-positive post-test counseling session. Staff (n = 621) were sampled from for-profit, nonprofit, and county government HIV testing organizations (N = 159) in Los Angeles County from 2003 to 2007. Among providers who conducted an HIV-positive post-test counseling session (n = 204), 65% discussed PN but only 10% had confirmed agreement to provider-involved PN (PIPN).