Examining Predictors of Congregational HIV Activities

描述（由申请人提供）：种族和少数民族不成比例地遭受艾滋病毒，这是美国死亡率和发病率的主要原因。扩大以社区为基础的艾滋病毒预防、检测和护理联系的一个创新方法是通过信仰组织，以前的研究表明，信仰组织可以促进健康和福祉-无论是在其教会内部还是通过向社区的宣传。然而，尽管宗教团体在卫生方面作出了重要贡献，但很少有宗教团体参与与艾滋病毒有关的活动。虽然我们不明白所有的原因，这种缺乏公理艾滋病毒的活动，在文献中确定的几个因素包括缺乏有关疾病的信息，它的历史，其后果，以及有限的公理资源。与艾滋病、同性恋和吸毒有关的耻辱感也被认为是一个特别重要的障碍。以前的研究一直是有限的，因为缺乏数据的具体类型的程序教会发展。然而，2012年全国公理会研究（NCS）收集的新数据-美国宗教组织的全国代表性样本-区分了旨在支持艾滋病毒感染者（PLWH）的公理会计划，预防艾滋病毒，普遍提高对艾滋病毒的认识，并支持其他组织应对艾滋病毒。拟议的定量研究将利用这一新的数据，以更好地了解全国各地的教会如何具体参与艾滋病毒活动，并确定与教会中每种艾滋病毒活动相关的教会和社区特征。具体而言，它的目标是（1）描述教会从事或参与的艾滋病毒活动的具体类型;（2）检查预测参与这些活动的教会（及其社区）的特征;以及（3）评估这些因素是否因教会的大多数种族而不同（即，与其他非洲裔美国人相比）。为了实现这些目标，我们将借鉴创新和制度理论，以支持概念化的影响公理参与艾滋病毒的因素的框架。这些因素包括会众组成和社区背景（例如，会众和社区人口统计和健康特征），会众教义和政策，会众资源（例如，财务、物质和人力资源），以及会众与外部组织的关系，以及这些组织对会众开展艾滋病毒项目的影响。这项研究的结果将为我们了解宗教组织如何解决艾滋病毒差异，特别是他们如何在非裔美国人参加的机构中这样做做出重要贡献，这些机构受到艾滋病毒的影响不成比例。它还可以通过确定促进会众参与的因素，帮助告知与基于社区的艾滋病毒预防和护理工作有关的政策和做法。这项工作将特别感兴趣的公共卫生专业人员有兴趣建立有效的伙伴关系，与教会周围的艾滋病毒。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Racial and ethnic minorities suffer disproportionately from HIV, which is a leading cause of U.S. mortality and morbidity. One innovative way to expand community-based prevention, testing, and linkage to care for HIV is through faith-based organizations, which previous research has shown can promote health and well-being- both within their congregations and through outreach to the community. However, despite the important contributions religious congregations make in health, few engage in HIV-related activities. Although we do not understand all the reasons for this lack of congregational HIV activities, several factors identified in the literature include lack of information about the disese, its history, and its consequences, as well as limited congregational resources. Stigma related to the disease, homosexuality, and drug use has also been identified as a particularly important barrier. Prior research has been limited because of a dearth of data on the specific types of programs congregations develop. However, new data collected in the 2012 National Congregations Study (NCS)-a nationally representative sample of U.S. religious organizations-differentiates among congregational programs that aim to support people living with HIV (PLWH), prevent HIV, generally raise awareness about HIV, and support other organizations in addressing HIV. The proposed quantitative study will draw on this new data to better understand how congregations specifically engage in HIV activities across the country and to determine the congregational and community characteristics associated with the existence of each type of HIV activity in congregations. Specifically, it will aim to (1) characterize the specific types of HIV activities in which congregations engage or participate; (2) examine the characteristics of congregations (and their communities) that predict involvement in these activities; and (3) assess whether these factors differ by the majority race of the congregation (i.e., African-American congregations compared with others). To accomplish these aims, we will draw on innovation and institutional theories to support a framework for conceptualizing the factors that influence congregational involvement in HIV. Such factors include congregational composition and community context (e.g., congregational and community demographic and health characteristics), congregational doctrine and policy, congregational resources (e.g., financial, physical, and human resources), and the relationships the congregation has with outside organizations and the impact of those on developing HIV programs in congregations. The findings from this research will make an important contribution to our understanding of how religious organizations address HIV disparities and, in particular, how they do so among institutions attended by African Americans, who are disproportionately affected by HIV. It may also help inform policy and practice related to community-based HIV prevention and care efforts by identifying factors that facilitate congregational involvement. This work will be of particular interest to public health professionals interested in building effective partnerships with congregations around HIV.