Risk Assessment of Long-Haul Truck Drivers

Overview

International studies have repeatedly documented a substantial prevalence of sexual risk behaviors and high rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted infections (STI) ranging from 5%-56% amongst long-distance truck drivers ("truckers") living in diverse international settings including India, Bangladesh, South Africa, China, Laos and Thailand. The prevalence of sexual risk factors and STI/HIV in US drivers is unknown. This proposal will provide both qualitative and quantitative data on HIV risk behaviors by interviewing and testing truckers working for established long-distance trucking firms, the sector which accounts for most of the jobs in the trucking and warehousing industry in the United States. The data obtained from this study will be used to inform the development of an HIV prevention intervention for long-haul truck drivers.

The study proposed in this R34 application will address the following specific aims: Specific Aim 1. To perform focus groups and in-depth interviews with long-haul truck drivers to guide development of both a behavioral risk assessment instrument and an acceptable HIV/STI screening protocol for long-haul truckers. Specific Aim 2. To perform in-depth interviews with trucking industry executives to determine barriers to routine HIV/STI assessment and screening of their employees. Specific Aim 3. To perform a pilot phase with a subsample of long-haul truck drivers characterized by the following steps: TTM-based "cognitive interviews" (N=5); pilot testing of the survey and biomedical screening protocol (N=15); and a follow-up focus group (N=8) Specific Aim 4. To assess a sample of (N=300) truck drivers for general health and sexual risk behaviors using the adapted theory-based survey and to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes and obesity, HIV, N. gonorrhoeae, and C. trachomatis

Conditions