Self Stigma Reduction for African Americans Living with HIV/AIDS

描述（由申请人提供）：2004年，疾病控制中心报告称，艾滋病是美国25至34岁非裔美国妇女和35至44岁非裔美国男子的主要死因。研究人员解释说，这些族裔/种族差异是因为在获得护理方面的延误和在坚持药物治疗方面的困难。这些研究结果表明，文化上适当的干预措施，以减少艾滋病毒/艾滋病的耻辱，可以帮助提高治疗依从性，反过来，改善健康结果的非洲裔美国人感染艾滋病毒/艾滋病。Rao博士是这项以患者为导向的研究职业发展奖（K23）的申请人，他的职业抱负是帮助减轻弱势群体中与艾滋病毒/艾滋病相关的耻辱负担。在这项提案中，拉奥博士概述了一项职业发展计划，该计划将导致一系列工作，旨在提供有效的、文化上适当的干预措施，以减少感染艾滋病毒/艾滋病的非裔美国人的自我耻辱。通过课程和指导，饶博士将在健康信念和先进的定性和定量研究方法的文化特定模型的培训。她将实施一个研究项目，该项目将为感染艾滋病毒的非洲裔美国人调整自我污名减少干预措施。此外，她将调整和验证自我耻辱的结果测量，用于未来的临床试验。这些调整将导致试点测试，然后直接进行干预的全面临床试验。大卫切拉和帕特里克科里根博士，在行为干预和患者报告的结果测量方面具有丰富经验的高级研究人员，将担任该项目的共同发起人。该项目的临床站点是西北纪念医院的艾滋病毒门诊，为具有种族/种族和性别多样性的患者群体提供服务，其患者热情地参与临床研究。在获奖期间，饶博士将在埃文斯顿西北医疗保健和西北大学的教师任命。她在这些机构的位置，在研究和教育方面的杰出声誉，将为她提供一个优秀的环境，丰富的研究资源，她将需要成为一名独立的调查员。拉奥博士将处于独特的地位，开展这项工作，旨在减少艾滋病毒的耻辱，并随后改善健康结果，为非洲裔美国人感染艾滋病毒。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control reported that AIDS was the leading cause of death for African- American women between the ages of 25 to 34 and African-American men between the ages of 35 to 44 in the United States. Researchers have explained these ethnic/racial disparities in terms of delays in accessing care and difficulties in adhering to medication regimens. These findings suggest that culturally appropriate interventions developed to reduce HIV/AIDS stigma could help improve treatment adherence and in turn, improve health outcomes for African-Americans living with HIV/AIDS. It is the career aspiration of Dr. Rao, applicant for this Patient Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23), to help lessen the burden of stigma associated with HIV/AIDS in vulnerable populations. In this proposal, Dr. Rao outlines a career development plan that will lead to a line of work aimed at making available an effective, culturally- appropriate intervention to reduce self stigma for African-Americans living with HIV/AIDS. Through coursework and mentorship, Dr. Rao will train in culturally-specific models of health beliefs and advanced qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. She will implement a research project that will adapt a self stigma reduction intervention for African-Americans living with HIV. In addition, she will adapt and validate an outcome measure of self stigma for use in a future clinical trial. These adaptations will lead to a pilot test and then directly to a full-scale clinical trial of the intervention. Drs. David Cella and Patrick Corrigan, senior investigators with extensive experience in behavioral interventions and patient reported outcomes measurement, will serve as co-sponsors for this project. The clinical site for this project, the outpatient HIV Clinic at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, serves a patient population with much ethnic/racial and gender diversity, and its patients enthusiastically participate in clinical research. During the award period, Dr. Rao will be based at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare and have faculty appointments at Northwestern University. Her location at these institutions, with their outstanding reputation in research and education, will provide her with an outstanding environment, rich with the research resources she will need to become an independent investigator. Dr. Rao will be uniquely positioned to carry out this work aimed at reducing HIV stigma, and subsequently improving health outcomes, for African-Americans living with HIV.