HIV Prevention and Emerging Technological Prevention Strategies

Background:  Research has shown that a large proportion of young people are not concerned about becoming infected with HIV. Adolescents need accurate, age-appropriate information about HIV infection and AIDS, including how to talk with their parents or other trusted adults about HIV and AIDS, how to reduce or eliminate risk factors, how to talk with a potential partner about risk factors, where to get tested for HIV, how to use a condom correctly. Information should also include the concept that abstinence is the only 100% effective way to avoid infection.¹

Program background:  Street Wize Foundation will present the various ways that new media and socially interactive technologies have been effective in providing HIV/AIDS prevention awareness to at-risk youth as well as at-risk communities. By the end of the presentation, participants will be able to describe the new media outlets that are effective in providing prevention intervention resources.  With the age of Google and other powerful search engines, youth search for information on various subjects at their leisure. Socially interactive technologies (SITs), such as instant messaging (IM) and text messaging, are beginning to redefine the social networks of today's youth. By offering fast-paced, inexpensive, online communication, these new media outlets allow for new online youth social networks to form and evolve.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  SWF’s new program, SAFE IN THE STREETZ (SIS), is a community-level HIV prevention intervention that uses new media technology to identify, enlist, and train key opinion leaders to deliver messages that encourage safer sexual norms and behaviors within their social networks of friends and acquaintances through risk reduction conversations.  Besides reducing risky behaviors, the prevention messages can be used to encourage peers to seek HIV counseling and testing services, partner counseling and referral services, and other prevention and treatment services.

Conclusions:  SAFE IN THE STREETZ is grounded in several behavioral theories, including the stages of change model. Its effects extend beyond the persons who are involved in the intervention, thereby changing social norms and behavior within social networks in a community. 

Implications for research and/or practice:  In the development of SIS, our team studied several programs across the nation that dealt specifically with providing HIV/AIDS prevention to a youth and young adult target population. SIS program is based on two of CDC Diffusion of Evidence-Based Interventions (DEBI): Community PROMISE (Peers Reaching Out and Modeling Intervention Strategies) and POL (Popular Opinion Leader). Community PROMISE is an effective, community level HIV/STD prevention intervention that relies on role model stories and peer advocates from the community. The intervention is based on behavioral theories including Stages of Change. Community PROMISE begins with a Community identification process to collect and analyze information about the community, including HIV/STD risk behaviors and influencing factors, to help agencies identify target populations and appropriately tailor the intervention. POL is an intervention based on a program that identifies, trains, and enlists the help of key opinion leaders to change risky sexual norms and behaviors in the gay community. ¹CDC HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, 2004. Vol. 16. Atlanta: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC: 2005:1-46.