The 4.5-year revised community-based field experiment proposed in this application is in response to a program announcement from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) on """"""""Women's HIV Risk and Protective Behaviors"""""""" (PA-95-083). With the alarming increase in the number of women becoming infected with HIV, particularly African-American women, an urgency exists for more women-Focused interventions to assist women in reducing risky behaviors. Although several interventions have been demonstrated to reduce overall HIV and infectious disease risks, most have targeted those who inject drugs and share needles. Drug-using women in the Southeast, in contrast, are more likely to be crack users and low-frequency injectors-putting them primarily at risk from sexual transmission. We are proposing to use a randomized field experiment with 1,200 African-American women from two North Carolina counties to evaluate the effectiveness of three interventions: (a) a Woman-Focused intervention, (b) Standard-R, an intervention modeled on the existing NIDA standard HIV intervention, and (c) a Control group that receives only CDC HIV antibody testing and counseling. The Woman-Focused intervention is designed to address HIV risk through a personal, contextually relevant, and Acrocentric perspective. We hypothesize that by addressing issues of primary importance to African-American women, by demonstrating to them their individual risk, and by addressing specific concerns of their lives, our intervention will have a more substantial positive effect on the women's HIV/infectious disease risk behaviors than less specific interventions. We also propose to strengthen their social support and linkages to needed services, which will serve as protective factors. We expect that the women receiving this intervention will become more responsive to HIV/infectious disease prevention interventions, maintain safer behaviors, and begin to form their own social supports based on healthier behaviors and social reinforcement. We also propose strong linkages to drug treatment programs, particularly for welfare-eligible women who are faced with losing support due to welfare reform and women who trade sex for drugs, money, or other essentials. We further intend to estimate the relative cost of both the Woman-Focused intervention and the Standard-R intervention in comparison to the minimal Control group.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DA011609-02
Application #
2898228
Study Section
Human Development Research Subcommittee (NIDA)
Project Start
1998-04-20
Project End
2002-09-30
Budget Start
1999-03-31
Budget End
2000-03-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
1999
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Research Triangle Institute
Department
Type
DUNS #
131606022
City
Research Triangle Park
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27709
Wechsberg, Wendee M; Krupitsky, Evgeny; Romanova, Tatiana et al. (2012) Double jeopardy--drug and sex risks among Russian women who inject drugs: initial feasibility and efficacy results of a small randomized controlled trial. Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy 7:1
Wechsberg, Wendee M; Golin, Carol; El-Bassel, Nabila et al. (2012) Current interventions to reduce sexual risk behaviors and crack cocaine use among HIV-infected individuals. Curr HIV/AIDS Rep 9:385-93
Wechsberg, Wendee M; Jones, Hendree E; Zule, William A et al. (2010) Methamphetamine (""tik"") use and its association with condom use among out-of-school females in Cape Town, South Africa. Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse 36:208-13
Wechsberg, Wendee M; Browne, Felicia A; Ellerson, Rachel Middlesteadt et al. (2010) Adapting the evidence-based Women's CoOp intervention to prevent human immunodeficiency virus infection in North Carolina and international settings. N C Med J 71:477-81
Pluddemann, Andreas; Flisher, Alan J; McKetin, Rebecca et al. (2010) Methamphetamine use, aggressive behavior and other mental health issues among high-school students in Cape Town, South Africa. Drug Alcohol Depend 109:14-9
Wechsberg, Wendee M; Novak, Scott P; Zule, William A et al. (2010) Sustainability of intervention effects of an evidence-based HIV prevention intervention for African American women who smoke crack cocaine. Drug Alcohol Depend 109:205-12
Pluddemann, Andreas; Flisher, Alan J; McKetin, Rebecca et al. (2010) A prospective study of methamphetamine use as a predictor of high school non-attendance in Cape Town, South Africa. Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy 5:25
Wechsberg, Wendee M; Luseno, Winnie K; Karg, Rhonda S et al. (2008) Alcohol, cannabis, and methamphetamine use and other risk behaviours among Black and Coloured South African women: a small randomized trial in the Western Cape. Int J Drug Policy 19:130-9
Edwards, Jessica M; Halpern, Carolyn T; Wechsberg, Wendee M (2006) Correlates of exchanging sex for drugs or money among women who use crack cocaine. AIDS Educ Prev 18:420-9
Sawyer, Kyla Marie; Wechsberg, Wendee M; Myers, Bronwyn J (2006) Cultural similarities and differences between a sample of Black/African and colored women in South Africa: convergence of risk related to substance use, sexual behavior, and violence. Women Health 43:73-92

Showing the most recent 10 out of 17 publications