This application seeks funding for the Substance Use and HIV Prevention Research in Minority Communities training program. The program addresses the urgent need for culturally-competent prevention research in racial and ethnic minority communities targeting the intersection of substance use and HIV. The program offers research education and mentoring to social and behavioral prevention scientists who have cultural expertise regarding minority communities and who are initiating innovative programs of research that focus on substance use and HIV-risk-and-prevention topics. This five-year project will provide educational, mentoring and technical assistance to facilitate the development and continuation of innovative substance use and HIV-prevention research in racial and ethnic minority populations by early-career research scientists from the continental United States and Puerto Rico. The program will accomplish these goals via an intensive summer program housed at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California, San Francisco along with cyber-mentoring during the regular academic year. The program's aims are to: 1) assist visiting scientists in identifying and refining innovative theories, concepts, and ideas into clearly articulated programs of research in substance use and HIV-risk prevention;2) increase the capacity of visiting scientists to conduct multidisciplinary prevention research that targets the links between substance use and other HIV-risk behaviors in racial and ethnic minority communities;3) provide funding to conduct pilot research that will yield data for presentations at substance use-focused national conferences and provide preliminary data for grant proposals to NIDA;and 4) provide education, mentoring, and technical assistance in the development and submission of research grants to NIDA that focus on substance use, HIV-risk behavior, and HIV prevention.
These aims will be met through an intensive six-week summer program of seminars and one- on-one meetings to be held at the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies as well as provision of funds to conduct a pilot research study. In collaboration with program faculty mentors, visiting scientists will design pilot studies, which they will conduct during the following academic year, and return to CAPS for a second summer to analyze data from their pilot studies. Findings from the pilot studies will be reported at a national substance use research-focused conference, enabling the scientists to obtain extramural feedback on their work and to network with national and international leaders in substance use research and HIV-prevention research. By the third summer the visiting scientist will have obtained extensive feedback on that proposal, revised it, and submitted it for extramural review. The third summer will provide an opportunity to work with faculty mentors in responding to NIH reviewers'comments, further refining the proposal for resubmission, and, for proposals funded on the first submission, providing guidance in the implementation and management of the funded study. During the academic years between the summer training institutes, the program will use cyber-mentoring to support visiting scientists in completing their pilot studies and grant proposals, while providing additional seminars for topics identified by the visiting scientists (e.g., substance use syndemics, sampling hidden populations). The guidance provided by the collaborative research experiences and opportunities for interdisciplinary networking will result in a substantial increase in high quality substance use and HIV-prevention research by scientists studying minority populations in the U.S.

Public Health Relevance

Research to advance understanding of the development and progression of diseases and disabilities that contribute to minority health and other health disparities is a major goal of the National Institutes of Health's strategic research plan to reduce and ultimately eliminate health disparities. There are few areas that are more critical to improving the nation's health than understanding the disparities in Human Immunodefiency Virus (HIV), other sexually-transmitted infections (STIs), and how substance use contributes to these epidemics in minority communities. Innovative, evidence-based interventions that rely on well-researched and culturally-specific theories of human behavior are urgently needed to stem the rising tide of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in minority populations and the corresponding rates of substance use and abuse in those communities. Substance use, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections exert a disproportionate impact in adolescent and young adult populations. Racial and ethnic minority scientists are uniquely positioned to take a leadership role in addressing these issues and to make major contributions to prevention research being conducted in the U.S. minority communities most affected by these epidemics. The proposed research education and mentoring program aims to address this research deficit through offering seed funding to promising social and behavioral prevention scientists to conduct pilot studies and a mentoring infrastructure to empower these scientists to successfully apply for and receive NIDA funding to conduct rigorous, multi-year research projects in the communities of color most affected by these epidemics. The Substance Use and HIV Prevention Research in Minority Communities program meets these goals via an innovative, intensive six-week summer in-residence program of seminars, one-on-one consultations with mentors, and peer reviews, reinforced by pilot study funding and ongoing support from mentors during the academic year.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Education Projects (R25)
Project #
1R25DA028567-01
Application #
7841802
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZDA1-NXR-B (12))
Program Officer
Jenkins, Richard A
Project Start
2009-09-30
Project End
2014-07-31
Budget Start
2009-09-30
Budget End
2010-08-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$355,775
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California San Francisco
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
094878337
City
San Francisco
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94143
Levine, Ethan Czuy; Martinez, Omar; Mattera, Brian et al. (2018) Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Mental Health, Sexual Risk Behaviors, and Drinking Patterns Among Latino Men Who Have Sex With Men. J Child Sex Abus 27:237-253
Muñoz-Laboy, Miguel; Martinez, Omar; Levine, Ethan C et al. (2018) Syndemic Conditions Reinforcing Disparities in HIV and Other STIs in an Urban Sample of Behaviorally Bisexual Latino Men. J Immigr Minor Health 20:497-501
Mattera, Brian; Levine, Ethan C; Martinez, Omar et al. (2018) Long-term health outcomes of childhood sexual abuse and peer sexual contact among an urban sample of behaviourally bisexual Latino men. Cult Health Sex 20:607-624
Rodríguez Madera, Sheilla L; Díaz, Nelson Varas; Pibernus, Alíxida Ramos et al. (2017) EXPLORING THE FEASIBILITY AND ACCEPTABILITY OF BIOMARKER COLLECTION FOR HIV INFECTION AND CHRONIC STRESS AMONG TRANSWOMEN IN PUERTO RICO. Rev Puertorriquena Psicol 28:268-281
Behar, Emily; Rowe, Christopher; Santos, Glenn-Milo et al. (2017) Acceptability of Naloxone Co-Prescription Among Primary Care Providers Treating Patients on Long-Term Opioid Therapy for Pain. J Gen Intern Med 32:291-295
Muñoz-Laboy, Miguel; Martínez, Omar; Guilamo-Ramos, Vincent et al. (2017) Influences of Economic, Social and Cultural Marginalization on the Association Between Alcohol Use and Sexual Risk Among Formerly Incarcerated Latino Men. J Immigr Minor Health 19:1073-1087
Washington, Thomas Alex; Applewhite, Sheldon; Glenn, Wendell (2017) Using Facebook as a Platform to Direct Young Black Men Who Have Sex With Men to a Video-Based HIV Testing Intervention: A Feasibility Study. Urban Soc Work 1:36-52
Haley, Danielle F; Linton, Sabriya; Luo, Ruiyan et al. (2017) Public Housing Relocations and Relationships of Changes in Neighborhood Disadvantage and Transportation Access to Unmet Need for Medical Care. J Health Care Poor Underserved 28:315-328
Quinn, Katherine; Voisin, Dexter R; Bouris, Alida et al. (2017) Multiple Dimensions of Stigma and Health Related Factors Among Young Black Men Who Have Sex with Men. AIDS Behav 21:207-216
Bouris, Alida; Hill, Brandon J (2017) Exploring the Mother-Adolescent Relationship as a Promotive Resource for Sexual and Gender Minority Youth. J Soc Issues 73:618-636

Showing the most recent 10 out of 55 publications