Improving Prevention Systems to Reduce Disparities for High Priority Populations

Overview

This project collaborates with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) to develop and test a field-based comprehensive sexual health intervention for HIV-exposed contacts notified by its Partner Services (i.e., HIV contact tracing) program. The goal of the study is to develop and test the impact of this new intervention on improving rates of HIV testing, linkage to HIV prevention/care, and PrEP uptake among highest risk contacts recently exposed to HIV. We will conduct a 6-month pilot project, followed by a cross-sectional stepped wedge cluster randomized trial in which 12 clusters of NYC neighborhoods are exposed to the intervention sequentially, with three clusters moving from control to intervention every 6 months (n = 1150). Primary outcomes are HIV testing, timely PrEP/ARV uptake, and linkage to PrEP/HIV care. Secondary outcomes are STD testing and receipt of STD treatment (if indicated).

The original project as designed (described above) needed to be modified as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pilot was conducted as planned, but the main trial was changed to a single-arm implementation science project, due to the implementation and service delivery constraints on the NYC HD resulting from COVID.

Conditions