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An Exploratory Behavioral Intervention Trial to Improve Rates of Screening for AIDS Clinical Trials Among Racial/Ethnic Minority and Female Persons Living with HIV/AIDS

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Abstract

Individuals from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds and women have not been proportionately represented in AIDS clinical trials (ACTs). There have been few intervention efforts to eliminate this health disparity. This paper reports on a brief behavioral intervention to increase rates of screening for ACTs in these groups. The study was exploratory and used a single-group pre/posttest design. A total of 580 persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) were recruited (39% female; 56% African-American, 32% Latino/Hispanic). The intervention was efficacious: 25% attended screening. We identified the primary junctures where PLHA are lost in the screening process. Both group intervention sessions and an individual contact were associated with screening. Findings provide preliminary support for the intervention’s efficacy and the utility of combining group and individual intervention formats. Interventions of greater duration and intensity, and which address multiple levels of influence (e.g., social, structural), may be needed to increase screening rates further.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the women and men who participated in this study and the members of the Project ACT Collaborative Study Team. In addition to the paper’s coauthors, the Project ACT Collaborative Study team included: Scott Barnett, Gwen Costantini, Nancy Cotto-Laboy, Rebecca de Guzman, Anthony Diggs, Mindy Finkelstein, Don Garmon, Emily Hardcastle, Sondra Middleton, Kamala Mantha, Aman Nakagawa, Carolina Oteiza, Amanda Ritchie, Maya Tharaken, and Darrell P. Wheeler, PhD, MPH, Associate Dean for Research and Associate Professor, Hunter College School of Social Work. We also wish to thank the staff at the Beth Israel Clinical Trials Unit; the staff at Housing Works, including Patrick Dolby, Duane Ebesu, and Charles King, the President and CEO of Housing Works; the staff at AIDS Service Center NYC; Jonathan M. Kagan, Ph.D., Associate Director, Division of Clinical Research, NIAID/NIH; the staff of the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research at NDRI, including Sherry Deren, Ph.D. (Director). This study was supported by National Institutes of Health Grant # 1U01 46370 to tenth author (DM). Project ACT is dedicated to the memory of Keith Cylar (1958–2004). Mr. Cylar was the Co-founder and Co-CEO of Housing Works, and a Site Principal Investigator for Project ACT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR), National Development and Research Institutes, Inc. (NDRI), 71 W 23 Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY, 10010, USA

    Marya Viorst Gwadz, Noelle R. Leonard, Gricel N. Arredondo & Charles M. Cleland

  2. Housing Works, Inc., New York, NY, USA

    Keith Cylar

  3. Columbia University School of Social Work, New York, NY, USA

    Marion Riedel

  4. Independent consultant, New York, NY, USA

    Nina Herzog

  5. Division of Infectious Diseases, Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    Michael Aguirre, Ann Marshak & Donna Mildvan

Authors
  1. Marya Viorst Gwadz
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  2. Keith Cylar
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  3. Noelle R. Leonard
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  4. Marion Riedel
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  5. Nina Herzog
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  6. Gricel N. Arredondo
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  7. Charles M. Cleland
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  8. Michael Aguirre
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  9. Ann Marshak
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  10. Donna Mildvan
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The Project ACT Collaborative Study Team

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Correspondence to Marya Viorst Gwadz.

Additional information

Keith Cylar—deceased.

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Gwadz, M.V., Cylar, K., Leonard, N.R. et al. An Exploratory Behavioral Intervention Trial to Improve Rates of Screening for AIDS Clinical Trials Among Racial/Ethnic Minority and Female Persons Living with HIV/AIDS. AIDS Behav 14, 639–648 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-009-9539-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-009-9539-9

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