Developing Concurrency Messages for the Black Community in Seattle, Washington

Abstract

In the United States, Blacks are disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS. Sexual networks and concurrent relationships have emerged as important contributors to the heterosexual transmission of HIV. To date, Africa is the only continent where an understanding of the impact of sexual concurrency has been conveyed in HIV prevention messaging. This project was developed by researchers and members of the Seattle, WA African American and African-Born communities, using the principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR). Interest in developing concurrency messaging came from the community and resulted in the successful submission of a community-academic partnership proposal to develop and disseminate HIV prevention messaging around concurrency. We describe: (a) the development of concurrency messaging through the integration of collected formative data and findings from the scientific literature; (b) the process of disseminating the message in the local Black community; and (c) important factors to consider in the development of similar campaigns.

Concurrency and Other Sexual Risk Behaviors Among Black Young Adults in a Southeastern City

“…While it has been argued that special interventions focusing on reducing sexual concurrency should not be pursued (Klichman and Grebler, 2010), evolving evidence suggests otherwise. As noted previously this includes findings from stochastic network models (Morris et al, 2009; Enns et al, 2011) and interventions in Uganda (Epstein, 2007) and the U.S. (Frye et al, 2013; Andrasik et al, 2012, 2015). We believe our research adds to this growing body of evidence that concurrency is a common occurrence among some Black young adults and that addressing it directly could play an important role in future efforts to reduce rates of HIV transmission in this population.…”

“…Frye et al (2013) conducted an HIV prevention intervention for African American men in New York City, where they observed a significant reduction in concurrency from baseline to three-month follow-up. Using a community-based participatory research approach, Andrasik et al (2012) developed simple messages on concurrency that they then used as the focus of an HIV prevention campaign for the Black community (both African-American and African-born) in Seattle, Washington. A preliminary evaluation of the campaign (Andrasik, Clad, Bove, Tsegaselassie, & Morris, 2015) yielded positive changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions regarding concurrency.…”

A Preliminary Evaluation of a Community-Based Campaign to Increase Awareness of Concurrency and HIV Transmission in African American and African-Born Communities

“…Many aspects of this process have been reported in a previous paper (20), but we summarize them here, as the feasibility and acceptability of this intervention is based on this process.…”

“…This recognition has led to the development of many innovative HIV prevention media campaigns on concurrency in sub-Saharan Africa (those developed by Population Services International may be viewed here: http://cptoolkit.hivsharespace.net/pages/4-mass-media.html). As described in a previous paper (20) it also inspired the “Community Action Board” (CAB) of the University of Washington (UW) Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) to partner with researchers and local Public Health officials to develop this project to assess the feasibility and acceptability of concurrency messaging for HIV prevention in the Black community in Seattle and King County, Washington. The project piloted a multifaceted grassroots and local media social marketing campaign.…”

Reducing Concurrent Sexual Partnerships Among Blacks in the Rural Southeastern United States: Development of Narrative Messages for a Radio Campaign

“…Formative research processes for developing HIV prevention messages have been previously reported (Andrasik et al, 2012; Horner et al, 2008; Uhrig, Eroglu, Bann, Wasserman, & Guenther-Grey, 2010; Wright, Fortune, Juzang, & Bull, 2011). Most recently, Andrasik and colleagues outlined the development of a media campaign that directly targeted participation in sexual networks (Andrasik et al, 2012) and included extensive discussion of preproduction research.…”