FemAALES
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: In the U.S., the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been particularly devastating for African American women. Since the early 1980s, African American women have accounted for at least six of every ten female AIDS cases, while representing just 13% of the population. Nationally, the number of Black women becoming infected with HIV/AIDS is much higher than White women and slightly higher than Latina women. The majority of these HIV/AIDS cases have been attributed to sex with men, often a male of unknown HIV risk who may have had sex with other men or used injected drugs. The risk of transmission from bisexual men is particularly relevant in California, where men who have sex with men represent more than half of all HIV/AIDS cases and infection from men who use injection drugs plays a relatively minor role. Factors that affect African American male-female relationships suggests the need for programs that are specifically designed for African American women with male partners at high-risk (i.e., those who are bisexual, drug-using, or who have unknown HIV-risk histories). To help decrease the risk of African American women getting infected with HIV, we propose to develop and evaluate the Females of African American Legacy Empowering Self (FemAALES) Project, a unique HIV-risk reduction program specifically for African American women. This program uses three theories of behavioral change to help women lower their HIV risk and is a small-group intervention involving six two-hour group sessions lead by an African American facilitator. This intervention also uses the Internet as a learning and communication tool. The aims of the project are to: (1) develop and test the FemAALES intervention based on information collected from discussion groups with women and community service providers and from published literature; (2) decrease unprotected sex and number of sex partners; and (3) increase negotiation skills with sex partners--getting them to use condoms and to be tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted disease, and pride in being African American and a woman. In addition, we will assess if FemAALES helps to decrease the use of drugs before or during sex. This project will be fully developed and implemented in three phases. Phase 1 will involve collecting information to guide and develop the curriculum from three focus group discussions with the target population and one with community service providers for these women. Phase 2 will involve pilot testing the intervention with two small groups of women who will receive the FemAALES curriculum and one small group who will not. Phase 3 will involve a preliminary test with a total of 120 African American women evenly distributed to participate in FemAALES and a group who initially does not receive an intervention, but 3-months later receives Healthy Alternatives for Reducing the Risk for HIV Infection Project (HARRP)--an untested intervention currently be used with men and women of any racial/ethnic group by JWCH Institute. Participants will be given a survey at baseline, post- and three- months following completion of the intervention. Various statistical methods will be used to compare differences between the two groups. Study findings reporting which program did best at reducing HIV risk behaviors will be used to seek funding for a large-scale intervention and will be disseminated throughout California for use by policy makers, researchers, and other community organizations.