TY - JOUR
T1 - A comparison of network-based strategies for screening at-risk hispanic/latino adolescents and young adults for undiagnosed asymptomatic HIV infection
AU - Boyer, Cherrie B.
AU - Robles-Schrader, Grisel M.
AU - Li, Su X.
AU - Miller, Robin L.
AU - Korelitz, James
AU - Price, Georgine N.
AU - Rivera Torres, Carmen M.
AU - Chutuape, Kate S.
AU - Stines, Stephanie J.
AU - Straub, Diane M.
AU - Peralta, Ligia
AU - Febo, Irma
AU - Hightow-Weidman, Lisa
AU - Gonin, René
AU - Kapogiannis, Bill G.
AU - Ellen, Jonathan M.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank Richard Jenkins, Ph.D., from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for his contributions to the protocol's development and his support of this project. They also thank Susannah Allison, Ph.D., and Pim Brouwers, Ph.D., from the National Institutes of Mental Health for their support of this project. The authors are grateful to the Principal Investigators of the participating Adolescent Medicine Trial Units and their entire staff for their contributions to the project, including Patricia Emmanuel, M.D.; Marvin Belzer, M.D.; Lawrence D’Angelo, M.D.; Steven Douglas, M.D.; Jaime Martinez, M.D.; Lisa Henry-Reid, M.D.; Donna Futterman, M.D.; Barbara Moscicki, M.D.; Lawrence Friedman, M.D.; Patricia Flynn, M.D.; Aditya Gaur, M.D.; and Vicki Tepper, Ph.D. The authors appreciate the scientific review provided by members of the Community Prevention Leadership Group of the Adolescent Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (ATN). They are grateful to the ATN Coordinating Center at the University of Alabama, including Craig Wilson, M.D.; Cynthia Partlow, M.Ed.; Marcia Berck, B.A.; and Jeanne Merchant, M.P.H.; and the ATN Data and Operations Center at Westat, including Barbara Driver, R.N., M.S., and Sharon Swanigan, B.S., for their assistance. The authors also appreciate the technical assistance provided by Jacqueline Loeb, M.B.A., and Milena Soto, B.A., from Westat. Additionally, the authors would like to acknowledge Anthony Kung, B.A., and Rich Fallon, M.A., from the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, who provided administrative assistance. They are also very appreciative for the thoughtful input given to the project by participants of the ATN's national and local Youth Community Advisory Boards with assistance from Connie L. Trexler, R.N. The authors are indebted to our community partners for their assistance with developing and implementing the venue-based plan and for supporting the network recruitment and referral portion of the project, and to the Connect to Protect Community Coordinators for their contributions to the project's implementation. Most of all, the authors wish to thank the young people who gave of their time to participate in this research.
Funding Information:
The Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions is funded by (grant numbers 5U01HD40533 and 5U01HD40474 ) from the National Institutes of Health through the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development with supplemental funding from the National Institutes on Drug Abuse and Mental Health . This research was cofunded by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Office of AIDS Research .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. All rights reserved.
PY - 2014/12/1
Y1 - 2014/12/1
N2 - Purpose Hispanic/Latino adolescents and young adults are disproportionately impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic; yet little is known about the best strategies to increase HIV testing in this group. Network-based approaches are feasible and acceptable means for screening at-risk adults for HIV infection, but it is unknown whether these approaches are appropriate for at-risk young Hispanics/Latinos. Thus, we compared an alternative venue-based testing (AVT) strategy with a social and sexual network-based interviewing and HIV testing (SSNIT) strategy.Methods All participants were Hispanics/Latinos aged 13-24 years with self-reported HIV risk; they were recruited from 11 cities in the United States and Puerto Rico and completed an audio computer-assisted self-interview and underwent HIV screening.Results A total of 1,596 participants (94.5% of those approached) were enrolled: 784 (49.1%) through AVT and 812 (50.9%) through SSNIT. HIV infection was identified in three SSNIT (.37%) and four AVT (.51%) participants (p =.7213).Conclusions Despite high levels of HIV risk, a low prevalence of HIV infection was identified with no differences by recruitment strategy. We found overwhelming support for the acceptability and feasibility of AVT and SSNIT for engaging and screening at-risk young Hispanics/Latinos. Further research is needed to better understand how to strategically implement such strategies to improve identification of undiagnosed HIV infection.
AB - Purpose Hispanic/Latino adolescents and young adults are disproportionately impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic; yet little is known about the best strategies to increase HIV testing in this group. Network-based approaches are feasible and acceptable means for screening at-risk adults for HIV infection, but it is unknown whether these approaches are appropriate for at-risk young Hispanics/Latinos. Thus, we compared an alternative venue-based testing (AVT) strategy with a social and sexual network-based interviewing and HIV testing (SSNIT) strategy.Methods All participants were Hispanics/Latinos aged 13-24 years with self-reported HIV risk; they were recruited from 11 cities in the United States and Puerto Rico and completed an audio computer-assisted self-interview and underwent HIV screening.Results A total of 1,596 participants (94.5% of those approached) were enrolled: 784 (49.1%) through AVT and 812 (50.9%) through SSNIT. HIV infection was identified in three SSNIT (.37%) and four AVT (.51%) participants (p =.7213).Conclusions Despite high levels of HIV risk, a low prevalence of HIV infection was identified with no differences by recruitment strategy. We found overwhelming support for the acceptability and feasibility of AVT and SSNIT for engaging and screening at-risk young Hispanics/Latinos. Further research is needed to better understand how to strategically implement such strategies to improve identification of undiagnosed HIV infection.
KW - HIV testing/screening
KW - Hispanic/Latino adolescents and young adults
KW - Network-based HIV screening
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.07.009
DO - 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.07.009
M3 - Article
C2 - 25223476
AN - SCOPUS:84918827972
SN - 1054-139X
VL - 55
SP - 765
EP - 773
JO - Journal of Adolescent Health
JF - Journal of Adolescent Health
IS - 6
ER -