International Youth

In Our Own Words: Peer-to-Peer Messaging to Increase Uptake of HIV Prevention Strategies among Adolescents in Kenya

Investigators: Hong-Ha Truong

In Kenya, the 2014 Demographic Health Survey revealed low levels of HIV knowledge and high levels of risk behavior among adolescent girls aged 15-19 years, generating a need to create a narrative that reflects what is salient to this population. Hong-Ha Truong and colleagues propose to leverage the cultural importance of role-play and live theater in Kenya to inform the development of public service announcement (PSA) creation workshops for adolescent girls in Kisumu County to increase HIV knowledge and decrease risk behaviors among their peers.

The mixed-methods approach 1) elicits adolescents' narratives regarding sexual health and HIV prevention, as voiced to peers; 2) characterizes determinants shaping adolescents' mental and behavioral HIV prevention models; and 3) assesses the feasibility and acceptability of HIV prevention PSA creation workshops, with the intent of integrating with existing HIV prevention programs and synergizing with the planned roll-out of PrEP in the study region. Narratives will potentially be used to improve engagement with prevention messages by their peers, which can enhance the uptake of future combination bio-behavioral interventions.
 

Addressing the Continuum of Care and Prevention among High-Risk Thai Men

Investigators: Susan Kegeles, Scott Tebbetts

The HIV epidemic in Thailand is escalating among young men who have sex with men (YMSM). Given the suboptimal uptake of HIV testing and treatment services among YMSM, there are tremendous challenges in much-needed prevention efforts to improve linkage to care and achieve individual and community viral suppression to prevent onward HIV transmission. Based on a cultural adaptation of the evidence-based Mpowerment intervention, Susan Kegeles and colleagues developed and piloted HUG-M, a multi-level, theory-based intervention that diffuses social support and empowers the YMSM community in order to establish social norms supportive of risk reduction and biannual HIV testing. 

The project aims to:

  1. expand HUG-M to HUG-M+, a comprehensive, integrated, combination intervention that focuses on the entire Continuum of Prevention and Care, by adapting HUG-M to address YMSM living with HIV, and combining it with a Health System Intervention,
  2. implement HUG-M+ for 2 years in collaboration with the Thailand Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) clinics, and
  3. evaluate the efficacy of HUG-M+ in decreasing sexual risk behavior or using PrEP; increasing HIV testing; and increasing prompt, sustained engagement in care.

Visit the Mpowerment Project website.