Exploratory Center for Behavioral Epidemiology (RMI)

描述(由申请人提供)： 人类免疫缺陷病毒/获得性免疫缺陷综合症(艾滋病毒/艾滋病)是一个棘手的健康问题，20多年来各学科采取了协调一致的方法。事实上，尽管进行了大规模的多部门努力以防止其传播，但艾滋病毒在全球的发病率仍在继续上升。青年(15至24岁的青年)，特别是女青年感染艾滋病毒的风险最大。由于性传播感染(STI)，特别是艾滋病毒，已经变得密不可分，并因贫困、移民、劳动力市场机会和基于性别的权力差距等问题而加剧，因此，任何有效的预防方案都必须解决塑造个人脆弱性的潜在结构性因素，最明显的是决定他们冒险选择的经济环境。需要的是一种真正的跨学科方法，整合关于青年艾滋病毒/艾滋病危险行为的现有知识，以产生新的危险行为范例，并将促进制定和评估有效干预措施的新方法，以防止艾滋病毒/艾滋病在青年中传播。 我们建议整合经济学、人口科学和行为科学的理论、方法和分析方面，以开发新的途径来发现和干预青少年感染艾滋病毒/艾滋病、性传播感染和意外怀孕的风险。特别是，我们的目标是了解贫困、基于性别的权力、劳动力市场机会和移民等结构性因素最终如何影响这些结果。这项工作的最终目标是制定有效的干预措施，以预防艾滋病毒、性传播感染和意外怀孕。我们将通过三年的有组织的学习和对彼此学科的批评，集中整合理论模型和方法，以及工具和分析方法的验证和中试，来发展这门名为行为经济流行病学(BEE)的新学科。我们还将探索战略，通过为其生产和消费发展一个可持续的市场，将这一新方法扩展为一种更正式和更持久的纪律。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is an intractable health problem that has defied over 20 years of concerted approaches from a wide range of disciplines. In fact, despite massive multisectoral attempts to prevent its spread, HIV incidence continues to increase around the globe. Youth (young people between the ages of 15 and 24), and particularly female youth, are at greatest risk for HIV acquisition. As sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in general, and HIV in particular, have become inextricably woven together and exacerbated by issues such as poverty, migration, labor market opportunities, and gender-based power disparities, it has become clear that any effective prevention program must address the underlying structural factors which shape individuals' vulnerability, most notably the economic circumstances that condition their risk-taking choices. What is needed is a truly interdisciplinary approach that integrates existing knowledge about youth HIV/AIDS risk behavior to generate new paradigms of risk behavior, and that will foster new approaches to the development and evaluation of effective interventions to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among youth. We propose to integrate theoretical, methodological and analytical aspects of the Economic Sciences, Population Sciences, and Behavioral Sciences to develop new pathways to discovery and intervention in youth vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, STIs, and unintended pregnancies. In particular, we aim to understand how structural factors such as poverty, gender-based power, labor market opportunities, and migration ultimately shape these outcomes. The ultimate goal of this work is to develop effective interventions for the prevention of HIV, STIs, and unintended pregnancies. We will develop this new discipline, called Behavioral Economic Epidemiology (BEE), through a three-year process of structured learning and critique of each others' disciplines, focused integration of theoretical models and methods, and validation and pilot-testing of tools and analytic methods. We will also explore strategies for expanding this new approach into a more formalized and enduring discipline by developing a sustainable market for its production and consumption.