Podcasting HIV Prevention within African American Communities to Decrease New Infection

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Project Summary Given the continued impact of HIV among African Americans, there is still an urgent need to expand prevention efforts and HIV testing in African American communities. Heterosexual individuals may acquire and spread infection directly through heterosexual contact, bi-sexual sexual contact, and/or indirectly through homosexual sexual contact. Evidence-based interventions have been shown to increase consistent condom use, decrease sexual partners, and increase HIV testing; however, traditionally-implemented evidence-based intervention packages may not be accessible to communities given the resources and expertise needed to implement them. This project seeks to: 1) assess feasibility for the development of two theory- based, video podcast-delivered, HIV prevention interventions for self-identified heterosexual African American males and females; and 2) evaluate the effectiveness (pilot) of the two theory- based, HIV prevention video podcasts for African American males and females. We will develop the two (male and female) video podcasts that maintain the theoretical integrity of two established CDC evidence-based behavioral HIV prevention interventions. The assessment phase will consist of leveraging African American community members and stakeholders and experts in the field of HIV prevention science in the conceptual and theoretical development of the podcast content. The effectiveness phase will consist of broadcasting the podcasts for participants and evaluating HIV prevention knowledge, condom use, attitudes and self-efficacy for condom use, and HIV testing behavior (1mo and 3mo follow-ups). This intervention is the first of its kind and has the potential to increase HIV protective behaviors in this hard-to-reach and medically underserved population. We expect the resulting interventions to be easily disseminated throughout the African American communities, with the potential to reduce HIV-related disparities within this population. The present study will impact and advance the field by demonstrating feasibility and effectiveness for a novel mode of intervention engagement within HIV prevention science, serve as preliminary data for a larger trial, and foster HIV prevention awareness within the African American community.