Online Social Networking for HIV Prevention

描述（由申请人提供）：虽然有一些针对年轻人的有效艾滋病预防干预措施，但大多数有效的艾滋病预防计划都是针对男男性行为者（MSM）、注射吸毒者（IDU）和成年异性恋者开发的。我们目前缺乏(a)专门为青年设计的文化上适当的干预措施，包括艾滋病毒感染风险较高的青年；(b)能够有效影响传统教育体系之外的年轻人的干预措施。在本提案中，我们努力开发和评估一个基于互联网的社交网络项目，该项目嵌入了互联网上最大的社交网站MySpace.com。青年将参与“我的健康空间网络”的设计和开发的各个方面，从而形成一个具有高度互动性的网站，提供文化上适当和有效的艾滋病毒预防信息，同时利用面向青年的技术文化，同时利用互联网的巨大覆盖面。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): While there have been some effective HIV prevention interventions developed with young adults, the majority of programs with efficacy for HIV prevention have been developed for adult men who have sex with men (MSM), injection drug users (IDU) and adult heterosexuals. We currently lack (a) culturally appropriate interventions designed specifically for youth, including youth at elevated risk for HIV; and (b) interventions that can effectively reach youth outside our traditional educational system. In this proposal, we endeavor to develop and evaluate an Internet-based social networking program for young adults embedded on MySpace.com, the largest social networking site on the Internet. Youth with participate in every aspect of the design and development of My_Network for Health_Space, resulting in a highly interactive website with culturally appropriate and effective HIV prevention messages that simultaneously take advantage of the youth-oriented culture of technology while capitalizing on the enormous reach of the Internet. We will achieve the following specific aims in this project: 1. Conduct focus groups online at MySpace.com to inform the development of culturally relevant and appropriate social networking pages to promote dialogue about HIV Prevention among youth. 2. Use data from the focus groups to develop My_Network for Health_Space, a site that will be incorporated into the largest online social networking site, MySpace.com. Features of My_Network for Health_Space will likely include (a) peer-to-peer HIV related educational interactive chat rooms, forums, blogs, and testimonial components and (b) an animated weekly serial drama with multiple characters identifying and resolving challenges to HIV prevention over time. 3. Conduct a preliminary social network analysis of youth on MySpace to identify clusters of discrete and dense networks in geographically diverse locations across the U.S. 4. Randomize discrete networks to a trial examining the efficacy of My_Network for Health_Space for maintaining abstinence, increasing condom use, and increasing testing for HIV among participants.