Empowerment Intervention for Young Women - Phase I

Overview

This study will begin to develop a culturally appropriate secondary prevention intervention for young HIV+ women through focus groups. Using three intervention sites, focus groups will guide the development of the intervention's framework and content areas. An intervention will be developed/adapted through the data collected in the focus groups and review of relevant interventions. The intervention aims to address the following concerns: 1) reducing the risk of young women infected with HIV transmitting the virus to their sexual partners, and 2) preventing young women infected with HIV from re-infection with a new viral strain or co-infection with another sexually transmitted disease.

This study will develop/adapt a culturally appropriate secondary prevention intervention for young HIV+ women through focus groups. Using three intervention sites, focus groups will guide the development of the intervention's framework and content areas. An initial list of content areas and potential activities for presentation to the focus groups will be developed by the protocol team by reviewing existing HIV prevention interventions that have been implemented with adolescents and young adults, as well as interventions that have targeted HIV+ populations. Three focus groups will be convened (1 per selected ATN site) with young women living with HIV to solicit information on their intervention needs. All focus groups will be digitally recorded and transcribed. Executive summaries of the groups will focus on the major themes elicited by probes that explore the proposed content and structure of the interventions. The summaries will be generated by members of the Protocol Team and based on a review and integration of data from a) focus group flip charts; b) digitally recorded comments from participants; c) digitally recorded oral summaries by moderators offered during the focus groups; and d) thematic notes taken by the assistant moderator during the focus groups. Based on the outcome of the focus groups, intervention modules will be developed and modified in collaboration with the Youth Advisory Team.