Strategies to prevent HIV transmission among heterosexual African-American men.

BMC Public Health

The HIV Prevention Research Group, College of Pharmacy, University of Houston, 1441 Moursund Street, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.

Published: January 2005

Background: As part of qualitative research for developing a culturally sensitive and developmentally appropriate videotape-based HIV prevention intervention for heterosexual African- American men, six focus groups were conducted with thirty African-American men to determine their perceptions of AIDS as a threat to the African-American community, characteristics of past situations that have placed African Americans at risk for HIV infection, their personal high risk behaviors, and suggestions on how HIV intervention videotapes could be produced to achieve maximum levels of interest among African-American men in HIV training programs.

Methods: The groups took place at a low-income housing project in Houston, Texas, a major epicenter for HIV/AIDS. Each group was audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using theme and domain analysis.

Results: The results revealed that low-income African-American men perceive HIV/AIDS as a threat to their community and they have placed themselves at risk of HIV infection based on unsafe sex practices, substance abuse, and lack of knowledge. They also cite lack of income to purchase condoms as a barrier to safe sex practice. They believe that HIV training programs should address these risk factors and that videotapes developed for prevention should offer a sensationalized look at the effects of HIV/AIDS on affected persons. They further believe that programs should be held in African-American communities and should include condoms to facilitate reduction of risk behaviors.

Conclusions: The results indicate that the respondents taking part in this study believe that HIV and AIDS are continued threats to the African-American community because of sexual risk taking behavior, that is, failure to use condoms. Further, African-American men are having sex without condoms when having sex with women often when they are under the influence of alcohol or other mind-altering substances and they are having sex with men while incarcerated and become infected and once released resume unprotected sexual relations with women. According to the men, substance abuse is an important part of the problem of HIV in the African-American community. This is in keeping with research that shows that drug use, especially crack cocaine, is linked to sexual risk taking among African Americans and to increased likelihood of becoming infected with other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including HIV. Thus, interventions for men should address condom use, condom availability, skills for using condoms, eroticizing condoms and substance abuse prevention. Men in the present study also strongly recommended that HIV/AIDS videotaped messages should include footage of the sensational effects of the disease.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC544892PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-5-3DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

african-american men
20
african-american community
12
substance abuse
12
hiv
10
men
10
african-american
9
african americans
8
risk hiv
8
hiv infection
8
hiv training
8

Similar Publications

Young Black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men who are living with HIV are at an increased risk of experiencing poor mental health due to their exposures to intersectional stigma and discrimination, but often do not seek traditional mental health care. We qualitatively explored conceptualizations of mental health through interviews with 40 participants and analyzed our data using a phenomenology-informed approach. Participants conceptualized mental health as having inward-facing (cultivation of a healthy relationship with oneself, maintaining a peaceful state of mind, lack of depressed mood) and outward-facing components (goal-oriented behavior, resilient coping mechanisms).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Uptake of HIV Preexposure Prophylaxis Among Medicare Beneficiaries - United States, 2014-2021.

J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr

December 2024

Division of HIV Prevention, National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.

Background: Previous studies have estimated preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use among persons with commercial health insurance and Medicaid. However, data are lacking regarding PrEP use among those with Medicare.

Methods: Using a previously developed algorithm, we estimated the number of Medicare beneficiaries (MBs) with fee-for-service (FFS) claims who were prescribed PrEP from 2014 to 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: African American (AA) men are at increased risk of prostate cancer (PCa) compared to men of European ancestry (EA). Biological mechanisms, including epigenetics, likely contribute to this disparity, but prior studies have been limited by sample size, candidate gene approaches, or lack of epigenome-wide DNA methylation (DNAm) data.

Methods: To improve our understanding of these mechanisms, we compared DNAm features distinguishing tumor and paired histologically benign tissue from 76 AA and 75 EA PCa patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Black men are more likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (T2D) compared to non-Hispanic White men, especially those over 55 years of age. Although there is ample evidence around the efficacy of peer-led diabetes self-management and support (PLDSMS) programs in improving diabetes health outcomes, Black men living with T2D experience several barriers to meaningful participation in peer-led programs and program developers face barriers to implementation. This qualitative study aimed to identify perspectives from collaborators on barriers and facilitators that impact the implementation of a PLDSMS intervention for older Black men with T2D.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The incidence and severity of prostate cancer (PrCa) vary significantly by ancestry, particularly showing higher rates in African-American men compared to European-American men.
  • Recent studies have not adequately addressed population-specific genetic factors contributing to PrCa risk in men of African ancestry, focusing instead on broad polygenic risk scores.
  • A new approach identified around 2,000 SNPs (enhancer SNPs or eSNPs) in African-American men that may impact prostate cancer risk through mechanisms like immune suppression, telomere elongation, and disruption of prostate-specific transcription factors, suggesting a more tailored polygenic risk score for assessing PrCa susceptibility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!