Session: Context and Populations: HIV/AIDS Across the Care Continuum in the United States (Society for Prevention Research 22nd Annual Meeting)

SESSION INTRODUCTION: Risk for HIV acquisition is influenced by a complex interplay of individual and structural level factors. Addressing critical issues such as HIV risk reduction, testing, and care engagement requires multi-level approaches, community involvement, and the inclusion of multiple stakeholders. Likewise approaches utlizing multiple methods are necessary for both increasing our understanding of indviduals’ lives and evaluating and refining interventions designed to address their specific health needs.

Accordingly, the goal of this session is to present three unique studies focused across the HIV care continuum of prevention, linkage to care, and care engagement. The symposium supports the conference theme of Prevention and Promotion Efforts Focused on HIV/AIDSby bringing together researchers from a variety of institutions who apply prevention messages across different contexts (e.g. schools, clinics, and neighborhoods), and geographic locales.

Paper 1 will present an overview of Familias Unidas, a Hispanic-specific, family-based preventive intervention found to be efficacious in preventing and reducing adolescent substance use and HIV sexual risk behaviors in multiple randomized clinical trials.

Paper 2 will present an overview of the SMILE program, designed to facilitate linkage to, and engagement in, care for adolescents newly diagnosed with HIV in 15 Adolescent Medicine Trials Network clinic sites across 13 U.S. cities.

Paper 3 will describe the associations of neighborhood conditions and HIV management parameters among HIV+ individuals currently engaged in care and discuss opportunities for intervention.

At the conclusion of the presentations, the discussant will describe unifying themes and insights and moderate a discussion about different approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment between the presenters and the symposium attendees.  It is expected that the diversity of presented prevention research as well as contexts and populations will be appealing to the SPR meeting participants.