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Cancer incidence is rising among people living with HIV, as improved access to antiretroviral treatment has led to an increased life expectancy worldwide, including in India, thereby also increasing the need for palliative care services. While it is well known that HIV stigma acts as a barrier to engagement and retention in HIV care, we do not yet know how the additional stigma of cancer may compound this problem. The proposed study would meet this need by adapting our current India HIV stigma measures and African palliative outcome measures for use among people living with co-morbid HIV and cancer in India, and to adapt a novel evidence-based African intervention to improve access to effective palliation and end-of-life decisions throughout the care continuum in India. This is a two year study conducted in collaboration with our colleagues at Kasturba Medical College, Manipal.

PIs: Maria L. Ekstrand PhD, Naveen Salins MD

Consultant: Richard Harding PhD

UCSF-based Project Staff: Elsa Heylen MA, Amanda Mazur MS

Sep 13, 2018 - Aug 31, 2020 

This brochure lists research focusing on HIV testing and helpful resources produced by CAPS/PRC. You might use it to:

• Stay up-to-date on research and learn what we found out from research
• Use the materials in trainings/presentations
• Advocate for services/funding
• Write grants
• Develop new or modify existing HIV prevention programs
• Evaluate current programs
• Connect with CAPS/PRC to develop new projects.

Lead researchers (PIs) are listed for each study. This brochure was prepared by the Community Engagement (CE) Core, previously known as the Technology and Information Exchange (TIE) Core: “Tying research and community together.”

This is a three-phase study to identify the specific mechanisms by which MSM stigma affect sexual risk behaviors among MSM in Beijing, China.

• In Phase 1, we will explore the range of management strategies used to cope with MSM stigma via 30 in-depth qualitative interviews with MSM.
• In Phase 2, we will develop, using Phase 1 qualitative data and adapting existing quantitative scales, culturally-relevant measures of explanatory constructs of interest (e.g., MSM stigma management) to establish reliability and validity (N=170).
• In Phase 3, we will examine potential mediators (e.g., stigma management strategies, psychological distress, sexual contexts/situations) that explain how MSM stigma are linked to sexual risk for HIV with a respondent-driven sample of 500 MSM who will complete baseline and two follow-up assessments at 6 and 12 months.

We will also conduct 20 in-depth qualitative individual interviews with a subset of men selected from the Phase-3 participants to examine the acceptability of potential intervention components to address the link between MSM stigma and HIV risk.

The overall goal of this study is to enhance the physical and mental health of rural Indian women living with AIDS and their children. We will achieve these goals through the use of trained village women as Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) to enhance the health of women and children through improved ART adherence, CD4 levels, and physical and mental health. This Indo-US collaboration between University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, San Francisco and All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) builds on our previous work with rural women living with AIDS and our successful ASHA program. Specific objectives include: Using a 2x2 factorial design, we plan to assess the effects of nutrition training and/or food supplements on primary outcomes for rural women living with AIDS in improving body composition and immune status (CD4 levels) as assessed at 6-, 12- and 18-month follow-up. Examining the effects of the program arms and their interaction on adherence to ART, psychological health, nutritional adequacy, and lipid profile over time.

The principal objective of the International Core at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) is to facilitate high quality international research by creating effective and productive partnerships between CAPS scientists and HIV prevention researchers from developing countries. The International Core brings together CAPS scientists and alumni of the Collaborative Prevention Research in Developing Countries Program, a training program for new developing country researchers (described below). CAPS has successfully developed a broad portfolio of small-scale international research projects conducted by CAPS scientists and Program alumni. Together we have made important contributions toward understanding how to prevent HIV transmission and how to care for the HIV-infected in the developing world.