Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Dec;8(6):1456-1466.
doi: 10.1007/s40615-020-00908-2. Epub 2020 Oct 30.

Vital Voices: HIV Prevention and Care Interventions Developed for Disproportionately Affected Communities by Historically Underrepresented, Early-Career Scientists

Madeline Y Sutton  1 , Omar Martinez  2 , Bridgette M Brawner  3 , Guillermo Prado  4 , Andres Camacho-Gonzalez  5 , Yannine Estrada  4 , Pamela Payne-Foster  6 , Carlos E Rodriguez-Diaz  7   8 , Sophia A Hussen  9 , Yzette Lanier  10 , Jacob J van den Berg  11 , Souhail M Malavé-Rivera  8 , DeMarc A Hickson  12 , Errol L Fields  13
Affiliations
Review

Vital Voices: HIV Prevention and Care Interventions Developed for Disproportionately Affected Communities by Historically Underrepresented, Early-Career Scientists

Madeline Y Sutton et al. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Background: HIV prevention interventions which support engagement in care and increased awareness of biomedical options, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), are highly desired for disproportionately affected Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx and gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) populations in the United States (US). However, in almost 40 years of HIV research, few interventions have been developed directly by and for these priority populations in domestic counties most at risk. We submit that interventions developed by early-career scientists who identify with and work directly with affected subgroups, and which include social and structural determinants of health, are vital as culturally tailored HIV prevention and care tools.

Methods: We reviewed and summarized interventions developed from 2007 to 2020 by historically underrepresented early-career HIV prevention scientists in a federally funded research mentoring program. We mapped these interventions to determine which were in jurisdictions deemed as high priority (based on HIV burden) by national prevention strategies.

Results: We summarized 11 HIV interventions; 10 (91%) of the 11 interventions are in geographic areas where HIV disparities are most concentrated and where new HIV prevention and care activities are focused. Each intervention addresses critical social and structural determinants of health disparities, and successfully reaches priority populations.

Conclusion: Focused funding that supports historically underrepresented scientists and their HIV prevention and care intervention research can help facilitate reaching national goals to reduce HIV-related disparities and end the HIV epidemic. Maintaining these funding streams should remain a priority as one of the tools for national HIV prevention.

Keywords: Black/African American; HIV; Hispanic/Latinx; Historically underrepresented scientists; Interventions.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The 48 highest HIV-burden counties + DC + San Juan, overlayed with the 11 MARI intervention research areas (yellow dots). These 48 counties have the highest burden of HIV. Not highlighted here are the 7 states with substantial rural HIV burden (Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina). This map is publicly available at: https://aidsvu.org/ending-the-epidemic/. Accessed June 18, 2020
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. 2017 American Community Survey Single Year Estimates. U.S. Census Fact Finder. American Community Survey. Available at: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-kits/2018/acs-1year.html. Accessed 29 Oct 2020.
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV Surveillance Report, 2018; vol. 31. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/library/reports/hiv-surveillance/vol-31/index.html. Published May 2020. Accessed 29 Oct 2020.
    1. Fernández MI, Wheeler DP, Alfonso SV. Embedding HIV mentoring programs in HIV research networks. AIDS Behav. 2016;20(Suppl 2):281–287. - PubMed
    1. Sutton MY, Lanier YA, Willis LA, Castellanos T, Dominguez K, Fitzpatrick L, Miller KS. Strengthening the network of mentored, underrepresented minority scientists and leaders to reduce HIV-related health disparities. Am J Public Health. 2013;103(12):2207–2214. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dolcini MM, Reznick OAG, Marin BV. Investments in the future of behavioral science: the University of California, San Francisco, Visiting professors program. Am J Public Health. 2009;99(suppl 1):S43–S47. - PMC - PubMed