Using Multimedia Technologies to Disseminate an HIV Prevention Intervention

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite two decades of research demonstrating the efficacy of science-based interventions to reduce risk behaviors, the science of HIV prevention dissemination is still in its early stages. HIV infections continue to rise worldwide, and heterosexual contact remains the primary and escalating route of transmission. There is a critical need for increased capacity, scale and speed for HIV prevention intervention dissemination approaches, such as those increasingly implemented in educational and medical arenas, which use multimedia and internet-based approaches. This revised application proposes a technology transfer study that will advance the science of HIV prevention dissemination research by testing whether employing multimedia and internet-based technology for implementation of an evidence-based, couple-level HIV prevention intervention improves adoption outcomes beyond existing dissemination strategies. Proposed is a randomized clinical trial to compare the effectiveness of disseminating a traditional, manualized package of Project Connect (Traditional), a 6-session, relationship-based HIV/STI prevention intervention for heterosexual couples at high risk for HIV/STI transmission, versus a multimedia, internet-based version of Project Connect (Multimedia) to clients at community-based organizations (CBOs) across New York State. Eighty participating CBOs providing HIV prevention services will be randomized to receive either the Traditional or Multimedia intervention and training packages. All agencies will receive two days of on-site training and two planned technical assistance conference calls by study investigative staff in the first two months following training. Telephone assessments completed by up to 6 staff at each agency (total of 480 participants) will measure primary outcomes, mediating, moderating and process measure variables at baseline, 6-, 12- and 18-months post-technology transfer. The primary outcome of the study is adoptions of the Connect intervention. The unit of analysis is the CBO. The proposed study will be conducted by Dr. Susan Witte, Dr. Nabila EI-Bassel, and the investigative team at the Social Intervention Group at the Columbia University School of Social Work, in collaboration with Dr. Robert Remien, of the HIV Center for Behavioral Research and Dr. Frank Moretti, Executive Director of the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL).