Promoting Condom Use Among African American Males

描述(由申请人提供)：通过理论上驱动的艾滋病毒/性传播疾病预防方案教育年轻人，在减少与无保护的性行为相关的意外后果(例如，艾滋病毒/性传播疾病感染、不孕不育、心理社会因素、经济负担等)方面相对有效。然而，人们对以男性为重点的避孕套推广计划的开发和/或适应情况知之甚少。因此，建议确定与避孕套使用障碍和促进者相关的过程的有针对性的战略，特别是在来自低收入社区的高危城市少数民族男性人群中，有可能对以男性为中心的相关艾滋病毒/性传播疾病风险降低方案的制定产生积极影响。因此，这项R21发展/探索性研究的具体目的是根据社会认知理论和变化阶段模型，开发一个简短的以男性为中心的避孕套促进干预计划，以鼓励城市年轻的非裔美国男性使用避孕套，并对由此产生的干预进行试点。为了实现这一目标，我们建议在目标人群中开展一系列焦点小组--从芝加哥南区选定的卫生诊所招募--以更好地了解与有效使用避孕套相关的动态和过程(例如，避孕套使用障碍和促进者)，以指导拟议的简短干预措施的发展。此外，为了评估这一新的短期干预计划对目标人群的潜在短期好处，我们还建议进行一项为期六个月的纵向试点研究，其基础是随机分配研究参与者到计划条件(即干预或对照)。具体地说，项目管理的可行性(即研究方法、研究群体、项目设置、合作伙伴等)将从研究小组在类似的高性风险寻求人群中开展艾滋病毒/性传播疾病预防相关项目的当前和以前的研究经验中获得信息。最后，我们希望与当地利益相关者分享拟议的研究结果，通过适当的专业渠道(如会议和出版物)传播结果，并利用数据开发R01应用程序，以测试这一新的避孕套推广计划的长期有效性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Educating young people with theoretically-driven HIV/STD prevention programs has been relatively effective in reducing the unintended consequences associated with unprotected sexual intercourse (e.g., HIV/STD infections, infertility, psychosocial factors, economic burden, etc.). However, less is known about the development and/or adaptation of male-focused condom promoting programs. As a result, a targeted strategy that proposes to identify the processes associated with condom use barriers and facilitators, especially among at-risk urban minority male populations from low income communities, has the potential to positively influence the development of a relevant male-centered HIV/STD risk reduction program. Therefore, the specific aim of this proposed R21 developmental/exploratory study is to develop a brief male-centered condom promoting intervention program in order to encourage condom use among young urban African American males, based on social cognitive theory and the stages of change model, and to pilot the resultant intervention. To achieve this goal, we propose to conduct a series of focus groups among the target population-to be recruited from selected health clinics on Chicago's South Side-to better understand the dynamics and processes associated with effective condom use (e.g., condom use barriers and facilitators) in order to guide the development of this proposed brief intervention. Furthermore, in order to assess the potential short-term benefit of this new brief intervention program on the target population, we also propose to conduct a six-month longitudinal pilot study based on a random assignment of study participants to program conditions (i.e., intervention or control). Specifically, the feasibility of program administration (i.e., study methods, study population, program settings, collaborating partners, etc.) will be informed by the current and previous research experience of the study team in conducting HIV/STD prevention-related projects among similar high sexual risk seeking populations. Finally, we expect to share the proposed study findings with local stakeholders, disseminate the results through appropriate professional outlets such as conferences and publications, and use the data to develop an R01 application in order to test the long term efficacy of this new condom promoting program.