Highlights The precarious immigrant population is often invisible because it is at the interstices of care devices and, in the current epidemic context, isolation facilities. Confinement affects individuals' abilities to act, and generates a "disaffiliation process" to placing this precarious immigrant population even more on the margins of society. Covid-19 crisis exacerbates pre-existing difficulties, generating not so new situations for these precarious immigrant population. Need to formulate specifics interventions : targeted outreach intervention, participatory approach and deliberative spaces ; promote health promotion intervention; right based intervention.

BackgroundSub-Saharan and Caribbean immigrants are particularly affected by HIV in Europe, and recent evidence shows that a large portion of them acquired HIV after arrival. There is a need for efficient interventions that can reduce immigrants’ exposure to HIV. We describe the pilot phase of a community-based empowerment outreach intervention among sub-Saharan and Caribbean immigrants in the greater Paris area aimed at 1) constructing the intervention, 2) assessing its feasibility, and 3) assessing the feasibility of its evaluation based on a stepped-wedge approach.Methods1) To develop the intervention, a literature review was conducted on existing interventions and participatory approaches developed, including the constitution of peer groups. 2) To assess the intervention’s feasibility, a pilot was conducted between April 2018 and December 2018. A daily register was used to collect data on sociodemographic characteristics of all persons who visited the mobile team to assess eligibility and acceptability. 3) To assess the feasibility of performing a stepped-wedge trial to evaluate the intervention, we compared eligibility, enrolment and retention at 3 months in two arms (immediate vs deferred). Chi-squared tests were used to compare reach and retention between the two arms.ResultsIntervention development. The Makasi intervention was designed as an outreach intervention that starts with the persons’ capacities and helps them appropriate existing resources and information and obtain knowledge about sexual health, based upon motivational interviewing techniques.Intervention Feasibility. Between April 2018 and December 2018, a total of 485 persons were identified as eligible. Participation in the intervention was proposed to 79% of eligible persons. When proposed, the persons enrolled in the intervention with a response rate of 69%. Some were lost to follow-up, and 188 persons were finally included.Evaluation Feasibility. The proportions of eligible (45 and 42%) individuals and of enrolled individuals (65 and 74%) were similar and not significantly different in the immediate and deferred arms, respectively.ConclusionsA community-based outreach intervention aimed at improving sub-Saharan and Caribbean immigrants’ empowerment in sexual health is feasible. The pilot phase was key to identifying challenges, designing a relevant intervention and validating the stepped-wedge protocol for evaluation.

BackgroundOne of the classic challenges for prevention programmes is reaching the populations they serve. In France, a substantial number of African migrants living with HIV acquired their infection after migrating. The aim of this paper is to better understand the characteristics of the population reached by a community-based outreach approach.MethodsWe compared sociodemographic characteristics across three different groups in the Paris greater area: (1) the general African migrant population (Population census), (2) the African migrant population using either the regular healthcare system or the system for vulnerable populations (PARCOURS Survey) and (3) the African migrant population reached through a community-based mobile unit (Afrique Avenir). Comparisons were conducted according to sex, age, region of origin, duration of residence and occupational and legal statuses using χ2 tests.ResultsThe migrants reached by the mobile unit were mostly men (69%), 52% of whom were younger than 35 years old. They more often lived in precarious situations than did the general sub-Saharan population (49% vs 35% were unemployed, respectively, p<0.001) and the ones accessing the regular healthcare system. Fewer of them lived in precarious situations than did migrants seeking healthcare consultations for vulnerable populations (42% in the mobile unit vs 54% in healthcare consultations were undocumented, p<0.028).ConclusionOur study shows that the outreach approach can constitute a missing link in the prevention chain among sub-Saharan African migrants, reaching a group that differs from the general migrant population and from the migrant population in healthcare services—not only the newly arrived migrants who live in more precarious situations but also those who have been in France for several years and are still affected by social hardship.