An inter-disciplinary approach to understanding and intervening on contextual factors that shape HIV-risk for young women and men in South Africa

在全球，特别是在南非，艾滋病毒仍然是一个重大的公共卫生挑战。在夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省--全球艾滋病毒流行的功能性中心，年轻妇女和女孩(18-24岁)感染艾滋病毒的风险特别大，年轻男子是该国艾滋病毒发病率上升的唯一群体。造成艾滋病毒高感染率的原因是贫困、不公平的性别规范以及种族隔离的长期遗留影响下普遍存在的暴力。这个项目似乎实现了三个目标：1)了解社会背景如何影响年轻人的艾滋病毒感染风险；2)制定干预措施，支持青年男女控制自己的生活和艾滋病毒感染风险；3)评估这种干预措施的可行性、可接受性和潜在影响。为了实现目标1，我们将使用独特的现有量化数据集来了解社会背景如何影响年轻人的艾滋病毒感染风险，然后与从夸祖鲁-纳塔尔-城市非正式住区和农村两个地点聘请的16名青年同行研究助理(YPRA)进行长期参与性研究。通过这一点，我们将以多种方式了解风险是如何表现出来的。为了实现目标2，我们将与YPRAS和研究团队合作，制定一项干预措施，以引起对年轻女性和男性生活的共鸣。为达致目标3，我们会对这项干预措施进行试验评估，从定性和定量两方面评估有关干预措施是否可行，是否为年青人所接受，以及是否有任何证据显示干预措施有效。我们会与“青见计划”合作，制作简单易懂的研究摘要和短片，与社会人士分享研究结果。

Globally, and in South Africa in particular, HIV remains a major public health challenge. In KwaZulu-Natal Province, the functional epicentre of the global HIV-epidemic, young women and girls (18-24) are particularly at risk of acquiring HIV, and young men, are the only group in the country with an rising HIV-incidence. These high rates of HIV-acquisition are driven by harsh social contexts of poverty, inequitable gender norms, and widespread levels of violence, driven by the long legacy of apartheid. This project seems to achieve three aims: 1) to understand how social contexts shape young people's HIV-acquisition risk; 2) to develop an intervention to support young women and men to take control of their lives and HIV-acquisition risk; and 3) assess the feasibility, acceptability and potential impact of this intervention.To achieve aim 1 we will use unique existing quantitative data sets to understand how social contexts shape HIV-acquisition risk in young people and then undertake long-term participatory research with 16 youth peer research associates (YPRAs) hired from two sites in KwaZulu-Natal - urban informal settlements and rural KwaZulu-Natal. Through this we will understand in multiple ways how risk manifests itself. To achieve aim 2 we will work with the YPRAs and the team of researchers to develop an intervention with resonates with young women's and men's live. To achieve aim 3 we will undertake a pilot evaluation of the intervention, assessing quantitative and qualitatively whether the intervention was felt to be feasible and acceptable by young people, and whether it shows any evidence of effect.We will share results with the community through producing plain language summaries of the research we produce, and also a short video at endline, all in collaboration with the YPRAs.