Self Stigma Reduction for African Americans Living with HIV/AIDS

描述(申请人提供)：2004年，美国疾病控制中心报告称，艾滋病是美国25岁至34岁的非裔美国女性和35岁至44岁的非裔美国男性的主要死因。研究人员解释了这些族裔/种族差异的原因是获得医疗服务的延迟和坚持药物治疗方案的困难。这些发现表明，为减少艾滋病毒/艾滋病污名而开发的文化上适当的干预措施可以帮助改善治疗依从性，进而改善感染艾滋病毒/艾滋病的非裔美国人的健康结果。这是Rao博士的职业抱负，他是这项以患者为导向的研究职业发展奖(K23)的申请者，帮助减轻弱势群体中与艾滋病毒/艾滋病相关的耻辱负担。在这份提案中，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，旨在提供一种有效的、适合文化的干预措施，以减少感染艾滋病毒/艾滋病的非裔美国人的自我耻辱。通过课程作业和指导，拉奥博士将接受针对特定文化的健康信念模型以及先进的定性和定量研究方法的培训。她将实施一个研究项目，为感染艾滋病毒的非裔美国人调整减少自我污名的干预措施。此外，她将调整和验证自我污名的结果衡量标准，以用于未来的临床试验。这些适应将导致试点测试，然后直接进行干预的全面临床试验。David Cella博士和Patrick Corrigan博士是在行为干预和患者报告结果测量方面拥有丰富经验的高级调查人员，他们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门诊，服务于具有很大种族/种族和性别多样性的患者群体，其患者热衷于参与临床研究。在获奖期间，Rao博士将在埃文斯顿西北医疗保健公司工作，并将在西北大学担任教职。她在这些机构的位置，加上他们在研究和教育方面的杰出声誉，将为她提供一个出色的环境，拥有她成为一名独立调查员所需的丰富研究资源。拉奥博士将处于独特的地位，可以开展这项工作，旨在减少对艾滋病毒携带者的污名，并随后改善非洲裔美国人的健康状况。

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.