Promoting Condom Use Among African American Males

描述（由申请人提供）：用理论驱动的HIV/STD预防项目教育年轻人在减少与无保护性交相关的意外后果（例如，HIV/STD感染，不孕症，社会心理因素，经济负担等）方面相对有效。然而，人们对以男性为中心的避孕套推广项目的发展和/或适应了解较少。因此，一项有针对性的战略建议确定与避孕套使用障碍和促进因素有关的进程，特别是在低收入社区有风险的城市少数民族男性人口中，这有可能对制定以男性为中心的相关艾滋病毒/性病风险减少方案产生积极影响。因此，本R21发展/探索性研究的具体目的是基于社会认知理论和变化阶段模型，制定一个以男性为中心的避孕套推广干预方案，以鼓励非洲裔美国城市年轻男性使用避孕套，并对由此产生的干预进行试点。为了实现这一目标，我们建议在目标人群中开展一系列焦点小组——从芝加哥南区选定的健康诊所招募——以更好地了解与有效使用安全套相关的动态和过程（例如，安全套使用障碍和促进因素），以指导拟议的简短干预措施的发展。此外，为了评估这种新的短期干预计划对目标人群的潜在短期效益，我们还建议进行一项为期六个月的纵向试点研究，该研究基于随机分配的研究参与者到计划条件（即干预或控制）。具体而言，项目管理的可行性（即研究方法、研究人群、项目设置、合作伙伴等）将根据研究小组目前和以前在类似的高性风险寻求人群中开展HIV/STD预防相关项目的研究经验进行通知。最后，我们希望与当地利益相关者分享拟议的研究结果，通过适当的专业渠道（如会议和出版物）传播结果，并利用这些数据开发R01应用程序，以测试这个新的安全套推广计划的长期效果。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Educating young people with theoretically-driven HIV/STD prevention programs has been relatively effective in reducing the unintended consequences associated with unprotected sexual intercourse (e.g., HIV/STD infections, infertility, psychosocial factors, economic burden, etc.). However, less is known about the development and/or adaptation of male-focused condom promoting programs. As a result, a targeted strategy that proposes to identify the processes associated with condom use barriers and facilitators, especially among at-risk urban minority male populations from low income communities, has the potential to positively influence the development of a relevant male-centered HIV/STD risk reduction program. Therefore, the specific aim of this proposed R21 developmental/exploratory study is to develop a brief male-centered condom promoting intervention program in order to encourage condom use among young urban African American males, based on social cognitive theory and the stages of change model, and to pilot the resultant intervention. To achieve this goal, we propose to conduct a series of focus groups among the target population-to be recruited from selected health clinics on Chicago's South Side-to better understand the dynamics and processes associated with effective condom use (e.g., condom use barriers and facilitators) in order to guide the development of this proposed brief intervention. Furthermore, in order to assess the potential short-term benefit of this new brief intervention program on the target population, we also propose to conduct a six-month longitudinal pilot study based on a random assignment of study participants to program conditions (i.e., intervention or control). Specifically, the feasibility of program administration (i.e., study methods, study population, program settings, collaborating partners, etc.) will be informed by the current and previous research experience of the study team in conducting HIV/STD prevention-related projects among similar high sexual risk seeking populations. Finally, we expect to share the proposed study findings with local stakeholders, disseminate the results through appropriate professional outlets such as conferences and publications, and use the data to develop an R01 application in order to test the long term efficacy of this new condom promoting program.