Social Capital and Engagement in Care Among Young Black Men Who Have Sex With Men Living With HIV

Emory University

Status: Completed

Conditions: HIV Infections

Treatments: Behavioral: social capital intervention; Behavioral: group-based health promotion intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT03664817

IRB00088255

Details and patient eligibility

About

The study is a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the social capital intervention versus a general health promotion intervention (Health for Life; H4L) among groups of Young black men who have sex with men (YBMSM) and to measure the social capital and engagement in care with the HIV-positive YBMSM at 3 and 9 months.

Full description

Young black men who have sex with men (YBMSM) have high rates of HIV infection, and are also at risk for falling out of clinical care. Social capital, which refers to the resources in a person's social network, has been shown to be beneficial for people living with HIV in other places. The study wants to understand and build upon social capital in the YBMSM population in Atlanta, with the goal of ultimately improving HIV-related outcomes for these youth.

To achieve this study is conducted in 3 phases. In Phase I, study will conduct interviews with YBMSM and community leaders to get advice about developing a social capital intervention that will improve social capital. Phase II is a randomized controlled trial of groups of YBMSM implementing the social capital intervention versus groups of YBMSM receiving a general health promotion intervention (Health for Life; H4L). This is followed by Phase III which is mainly to measure the social capital and engagement in care with the HIV-positive YBMSM at 3 and 9 month timepoints.

The study plan to enroll 180 total participants (120 in the randomized controlled trial and 60 in preliminary interviews) over the four year study period.

Enrollment: 77 patients

Sex: Male

Ages: 18 to 29 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age <= 29 years and >= 18 years
• Self-identify as Black/African-American (inclusive of multiracial identities)
• Male sex at birth
• Endorse history of sex with men ever (inclusive of gay and bisexual men)
• HIV-positive (self-reported by participant and confirmed by medical record)
• Able and willing to provide written consent and participate in surveys, interviews, and/or group intervention

Exclusion criteria

• Age < 18 years or >= 30 years
• Unwilling or unable to provide written informed consent
• Enrollment in one phase of the study is an exclusion criteria for enrollment in other phases

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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77 participants in 2 patient groups

social capital intervention

Experimental group

Description:

This group will receive intervention developed from Phase 1 study and based on photovoice project

Treatment:

Behavioral: social capital intervention

group-based health promotion intervention

Active Comparator group

Description:

The intervention will be a modified version of "Health for Life" or H4L, which was used as a control arm intervention in a recently completed protocol of the Adolescent Trials Network which was co-chaired by Dr. Harper (University of Michigan)

Treatment:

Behavioral: group-based health promotion intervention