A Relationship-Focused HIV Prevention Intervention for Young Sexual Minority Men in the United States: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of the We Prevent Intervention

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Kristi E Gamarel, University of Michigan; Lynae A Darbes, University of Michigan; Kristin Wall, Emory University; Jeb Jones, Emory University; Catherine Washington, University of Michigan; Matthew Rosso, Florida State University; Kristina Felder Claude, Florida State University; Lisa B Hightow-Weidman, Florida State University; Patrick Sullivan, Emory University; Robert Stephenson, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2023-02-12
• Publisher: SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10461-023-03994-5
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: AIDS AND BEHAVIOR
• Start Page: 1
• End Page: 17
• Grant/Funding Information: This study was supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Grant No. U19HD089881).
• Keywords: Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; Science & Technology; Pilot randomized controlled trial; HIV testing; Social Sciences, Biomedical; BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS; Biomedical Social Sciences; Adolescents; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Virtual counseling; COUPLES; Social Sciences
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Epidemiology

Abstract

We Prevent is a virtual counseling intervention designed to improve communication as a mechanism for reducing HIV risk among young sexual minority men (SMM) in relationships. We evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of We Prevent in comparison to standard Counseling, Testing, and Referral among a national sample of 318 SMM ages 15–24 in a pilot randomized control trial. We found significant differences in condomless sex with outside partners; however, there were no differences in other sexual behaviors, sexual agreements, intimate partner violence (IPV), or communication between the conditions across the 9-month follow-ups. Stratified analyses found non-significant trends suggestive that We Prevent may reduce condomless sex for those ages 15–17 and for relationships over 1-year and may reduce IPV in relationships over 1-year. Though study retention was adequate, session attendance was low. Exit interviews participants reported benefits of We Prevent and provided insights into how to increase uptake.