URBAN CONGREGATIONS' CAPACITY FOR HIV PREVENTION & CARE

描述（由申请人提供）：宗教团体触及许多生命，并在社会变革中发挥重要作用。它们能否在防治艾滋病毒/艾滋病的斗争中发挥同样强大的作用？虽然有一些证据肯定的答案，很少有研究系统地研究了一般的健康计划，更不用说在艾滋病毒/艾滋病服务的会众参与的患病率和预测因素。本研究的目的是描述艾滋病毒/艾滋病预防和护理活动在教会中实施的过程，并检查与这些活动相关的因素。它以一个概念框架为依据，在这个框架中，教会参与艾滋病毒/艾滋病活动的能力及其参与艾滋病毒/艾滋病活动的兴趣受到规范和态度（包括对艾滋病毒和同性恋的态度）、教会的组织结构和其他社区因素、各种资源（教会内部和外部）以及人口统计的影响。据推测，这些因素中的一些将预测会众的决定，实施任何形式的健康计划;其他因素将预测决定，特别是实施艾滋病毒/艾滋病活动，第三组因素将预测的类型和强度的活动实施。假设将通过实地考察和采访不同教派，种族和规模在洛杉矶县，其中一半已经实施艾滋病毒/艾滋病方案，其中一半没有，但在其他方面是可比的12个教会的牧民和外行领导人进一步阐述。假设影响会众参与的因素，然后将进行定量测试，通过电话调查的800个教会在不同种族的地区，县不成比例地受到艾滋病毒/艾滋病的影响。社区特征的影响将通过汇编社区一级的社会经济地位、种族多样性、社区需求等数据来检验。将通过分层线性建模技术对假设进行检验。研究结果将对县卫生部门和卫生保健提供者有用，他们将有兴趣知道他们的努力在多大程度上可以得到教会的补充。其他组织和机构也将对成果感兴趣，这些组织和机构力求促进在社区环境中提供服务，并培训潜在的提供者;了解当地艾滋病毒/艾滋病参与的障碍和促进者，应有助于它们有的放矢地开展工作。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Religious congregations reach many lives and play an important role in working for social change. Could they play a similarly powerful role in the fight against HIV/AIDS? Although there is some evidence for an affirmative answer, few studies have examined systematically the prevalence and predictors of congregational involvement in health programs in general, much less in HIV/AIDS services. The purposes of this research are to describe the processes by which HIV/AIDS prevention and care activities are implemented in congregations and to examine factors associated with such activities. It is informed by a conceptual framework in which congregations' capacity to engage in HIV/AIDS activities and their interest in doing so are affected by norms and attitudes (including attitudes towards HIV and homosexuality), the organizational structure of congregations and other community elements, various sets of resources (internal to the congregation and external), and demographics. It is hypothesized that some of these factors will predict a congregation's decisions to implement health programs of any kind; other factors will predict decisions to implement HIV/AIDS activities in particular, and a third set of factors will predict the type and intensity of activities implemented. Hypotheses will be further elaborated through site visits and interviews with pastoral and lay leaders at 12 congregations of varying denomination, ethnicity, and size in Los Angeles County, half of which have implemented HIV/AIDS programs and half of which have not but are otherwise comparable. Factors hypothesized to influence congregational involvement will then be tested quantitatively through a telephone survey of 800 congregations in ethnically diverse areas of the county disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. The effects of community characteristics will be examined by compiling neighborhood-level data on socioeconomic status, ethnic diversity, community need, and so forth. Hypotheses will be tested through hierarchical linear modeling techniques. Study findings will be of utility to county health departments and health care providers, which will be interested to know to what extent their efforts may be supplemented by congregations. Results will also be of interest to other organizations and agencies that seek to promote service provision in community-based settings and to train potential providers; knowledge of local barriers to, and facilitators of, HIV/AIDS engagement should help them target their efforts.