An inter-disciplinary approach to understanding and intervening on contextual factors that shape HIV-risk for young women and men in South Africa

在全球范围内，特别是在南非，艾滋病毒仍然是一个重大的公共卫生挑战。在全球艾滋病毒流行病的功能中心夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省，年轻妇女和女孩（18-24岁）特别容易感染艾滋病毒，而年轻男子是该国艾滋病毒发病率上升的唯一群体。这些高艾滋病毒感染率是由贫困、不公平的性别规范和广泛的暴力等恶劣社会环境造成的，而种族隔离的长期遗产又是造成这种情况的原因。该项目似乎实现了三个目标：（1）了解社会环境如何影响青年人感染艾滋病毒的风险;（2）制定干预措施，支持青年男女控制自己的生活和感染艾滋病毒的风险;（3）评估可行性，为了实现目标1，我们将使用独特的现有定量数据集来了解社会背景如何影响我们的工作。确定年轻人感染艾滋病毒的风险，然后与从夸祖鲁-纳塔尔两个地点-城市非正规住区和农村夸祖鲁-纳塔尔-聘请的16名青年同伴研究助理进行长期参与性研究。通过这一点，我们将以多种方式了解风险如何表现出来。为了实现目标2，我们将与YPRA和研究团队合作，开发一种与年轻女性和男性生活产生共鸣的干预措施。为达致目标3，我们会进行一项试验性的评估，从质和量两方面评估有关措施是否可行，是否为青少年所接受，以及是否有证据显示有成效。我们会与青少年行动计划合作，以浅白的语言，把研究结果摘要及结尾的短片，与社会人士分享。

Globally, and in South Africa in particular, HIV remains a major public health challenge. In KwaZulu-Natal Province, the functional epicentre of the global HIV-epidemic, young women and girls (18-24) are particularly at risk of acquiring HIV, and young men, are the only group in the country with an rising HIV-incidence. These high rates of HIV-acquisition are driven by harsh social contexts of poverty, inequitable gender norms, and widespread levels of violence, driven by the long legacy of apartheid. This project seems to achieve three aims: 1) to understand how social contexts shape young people's HIV-acquisition risk; 2) to develop an intervention to support young women and men to take control of their lives and HIV-acquisition risk; and 3) assess the feasibility, acceptability and potential impact of this intervention.To achieve aim 1 we will use unique existing quantitative data sets to understand how social contexts shape HIV-acquisition risk in young people and then undertake long-term participatory research with 16 youth peer research associates (YPRAs) hired from two sites in KwaZulu-Natal - urban informal settlements and rural KwaZulu-Natal. Through this we will understand in multiple ways how risk manifests itself. To achieve aim 2 we will work with the YPRAs and the team of researchers to develop an intervention with resonates with young women's and men's live. To achieve aim 3 we will undertake a pilot evaluation of the intervention, assessing quantitative and qualitatively whether the intervention was felt to be feasible and acceptable by young people, and whether it shows any evidence of effect.We will share results with the community through producing plain language summaries of the research we produce, and also a short video at endline, all in collaboration with the YPRAs.