HIV Prevention Among Vulnerable Male Youth

Study Summary

This exploratory study aims to design and test an HIV prevention intervention for young men who have sex with men (MSM) between the ages of 16-20 as this group comprises the US adolescent population most at-risk for HIV infection through sexual contact. To help develop the content and format of our intervention we will first conduct in-depth interviews with twenty-one 18 to 24 year-old young MSM who acquired HIV through male-to-male sexual contact between ages 16-20 (i.e., the target age of our intended intervention). We will then design a group-based primary intervention for young MSM between ages 16-20, relying on the information we gathered from these interviews, as well as consultation from an advisory board of young MSM and HIV prevention experts. Last, we will use an experimental design to compare our intervention to a control condition. We hypothesize that, relative to a control condition of sexual health education and risk reduction, participants in our intervention will demonstrate lower rates of HIV risk behavior, find participation more feasible, and endorse greater acceptability of our intervention.

Primary Outcome

The ARBA assesses changes in substance use (i.e, type of drugs, number of times, method), sexual behavior (e.g., frequency of condom use, frequency of sex with high-risk partners, frequency of sex while using drugs or alcohol, number of partners, frequency of vaginal, oral, and anal sex, and age of sexual debut) and lifetime needle use (e.g., any history of tattooing, sharing, and piercing) across three time periods (i.e., 2 weeks preintervention, 6 week postintervention, and 12 week postinterve

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL MyPeeps Manualized Group Intervention
• BEHAVIORAL Standard Sexual Health Education