Education Development Center, Inc. and Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York will develop and pilot test the Keep It Up: Peak Performance for Life program targeted to African American and other Black young men in high-poverty communities where HIV, other sexually transmitted infections (STI), substance use and unintentional pregnancies are elevated. This integrated structural, community, and individual-level intervention embeds HIV behavioral prevention and testing within a comprehensive social marketing and health screening program. This ground-breaking intervention incorporates four core elements: (1) Culturally tailored and male-targeted social marketing campaign to raise awareness about sexual health and the Keep It Up: Peak Performance for Life program; (2) Sexual and general health screening that includes simple, relatively non-invasive biologic testing for HIV, as well hypertension, cholesterol, diabetes, lung function and other STI, which are related to longer-term chronic diseases and sexual dysfunction; (3) Brief, engaging computerized HIV behavioral risk reduction that uses video clips and interactive activities to trigger self-assessment of risk, increase motivation for safer behaviors and relationships, model condom use and negotiation skills, and provide normative support; and (4) Personalized health profile and HIV risk reduction plan. Keep It Up seeks to """"""""normalize"""""""" HIV prevention and testing in the context of a convenient, relatively non-invasive health check-up for men, similar to routine reproductive health care provided to women.
The specific aims are to: 1. Conduct formative research to refine the core elements and content of the Keep It Up: Peak Performance for Life health promotion program for African American and other Black young men; 2. Finalize the Keep It Up: Peak Performance for Life core elements and materials; 3. Collaborate with the CDC multi-site committee to develop evaluation materials that can be used across sites to provide preliminary evidence of whether the intervention leads to change in HIV risk behaviors; 4. Pilot the intervention and enroll a sample of about 100 African American and other Black young men in a repeated-measures pre-post test with a 3-month follow up to determine whether the approach is promising and merits further evaluation. Keep It Up is designed for young men to receive HIV behavioral prevention and HIV testing quickly and conveniently in a non-threatening and non-stigmatized community setting. In addition to HIV prevention, the goal is to market health promotion to a population of African American men who bear a disproportionate burden of not only HIV/AIDS but other chronic conditions that lead to ongoing health disparities. ? ? ? ?
| O'Donnell, Lydia; Bonaparte, Beverly; Joseph, Heather et al. (2009) Keep It Up: development of a community-based health screening and HIV prevention strategy for reaching young African American men. AIDS Educ Prev 21:299-313 |
