Couples Advancing Together for Safer Conception (CAT-SC): A couples’-based intervention to improve engagement in sexual and reproductive health services for mobile fisherfolk in Kenya

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PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT Mobile fishermen and their partners along Lake Victoria in western Kenya are a vulnerable population in need of improved sexual and reproductive health (SRH)/HIV prevention efforts because of their high mobility, high HIV prevalence, poor HIV care engagement, and high-risk sexual behaviors such as relationship concurrency and a local transactional sex economy. Safer conception (SC) is a strategy to prevent HIV transmission and is an entry point for life-long HIV prevention efforts, but current interventions to improve SC uptake have neglected to address couple relationship dynamics (e.g. communication skills). This K01 proposal is to support Dr. Sarah Gutin’s long-term career goal to become an independent social-behavioral scientist conducting innovative research on engaging couples and promoting male engagement in SRH/HIV prevention services. To achieve this career goal, and in collaboration with a dedicated mentorship team, Dr. Gutin proposes training to: 1) gain knowledge of theories and research on the psychology of interpersonal relationships in mobile populations; 2) develop mixed methods skills to collect, analyze, and integrate dyadic qualitative and quantitative data; and 3) acquire couples-based behavioral intervention adaptation, implementation, and analytic skills. The overall research objective is to adapt an innovative couples-based HIV prevention intervention, ‘Jamii Bora’ and assess the interventions’ potential to promote male engagement for SC among mobile couples. The specific aims are to: 1) identify dyadic-level barriers and facilitators to male engagement in SC; 2) adapt the Jamii Bora intervention to improve male engagement in SC among Kenyan fisherfolk; and 3) assess intervention feasibility, acceptability, and implementation. Dyadic mixed methods will be used in Aim 1 including qualitative in-depth interviews, survey piloting, and a quantitative survey. In Aim 2, Dr. Gutin will adapt the Jamii Bora couples’ intervention for fishermen and their primary female partners with feedback from mobile couples and healthcare providers who will take part in separate intervention design workshops. In Aim 3, Dr. Gutin will conduct a preliminary assessment of the adapted intervention to evaluate feasibility and acceptability. The proposed research will employ an innovative couples-based intervention approach to improve relationship dynamics (e.g., communication) that are urgently needed to impact mobile couples’ SC uptake and retention in SRH/HIV services. This integrated training and research plan will prepare Dr. Gutin to launch an independent research career conducting couples research with varied populations and health outcomes, and provide preliminary data for a pilot to test the couples’ intervention, followed by a randomized trial with mobile couples. By focusing on research to improve the relationship context for couples disproportionately burdened by HIV, it is possible to limit HIV transmission risks and improve long-term uptake of SRH/HIV preventive behaviors and services.