An HIV intervention tailored for black young men who have sex with men in the House Ball Community

Abstract

Black young men who have sex with men (BYMSM) are the group most disproportionately impacted by HIV in the United States and most in need of efficacious interventions to address community-level factors that increase their vulnerability to HIV. The House Ball Community (HBC) is a distinct social network within the larger BYMSM community that may be particularly vulnerable to social norms and stigma around HIV. This study tailored an evidence-based, community-level popular opinion leader (OL) intervention for use within the HBC. The intervention, called POSSE, was then piloted to evaluate feasibility, acceptability and preliminary efficacy. Recruiting opinion leaders from the community and training them to deliver risk reduction messages was found to be feasible and highly acceptable. Community-level surveys (n=406) were completed over 5 waves of data collection. Overall exposure to the intervention increased across waves. Statistically significant (p < .05) declines were observed for multiple sexual partners, condomless anal intercourse with any male partners and with male partners of unknown HIV status. HIV stigma declined as well, but the trend was not statistically significant.

‘Ballroom itself can either make you or break you’ – Black GBT Youths’ psychosocial development in the House Ball Community

“…Houses often struggle financially to host balls, and sponsoring/collaborative partnerships with local organizations that are friendly to the community might lessen this burden, while also allowing for health promotion opportunities, increased access to services, enhanced safety, and use of harm reduction approaches, such as designated drivers at balls. As we have demonstrated in our pilot trial (Hosek et al, 2015), the development and encouragement of key opinion leaders can also help diffuse healthier norms from within the community, and continued support of more upstanding leaders may reduce the prevalence of exploitation. The HBC and its partners might also continue to engage schools and other social institutions to recognize and address the deleterious effects of stigma, discrimination, and marginalization of LGBTQ youth of colour in their settings.…”

“…This article emerged from qualitative data collected during the formative phase of our recent pilot trial (Hosek et al, 2015) of a community-based popular opinion leader intervention within the Chicago HBC, focused on reducing HIV risk and stigma. The present study seeks to add to the existing literature regarding the socialization of youth within this unique and often overlooked systemic context based on emerging themes from the qualitative data.…”

Effectiveness of peer-led interventions to increase HIV testing among men who have sex with men: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Eleven studies did not have HIV testing as the primary outcome (Duan et al, 2013; Elford, Bolding, & Sherr, 2004; Elford, Sherr, Bolding, Serle, & Maguire, 2002; Hallett, Brown, Maycock, & Langdon, 2007; Hidalgo et al, 2011; Hosek et al, 2015; Jaganath, Gill, Cohen, & Young, 2012; Kegeles, Hays, Pollack, & Coates, 1999; Subramanian et al, 2013; Yan et al, 2014). In two studies, the study population was not MSM (Gutierrez, McPherson, Fakoya, Matheou, & Bertozzi, 2010; Koech et al, 2014).…”

Equality in sexual health promotion: a systematic review of effective interventions for black and minority ethnic men who have sex with men

“…The length and number of sessions varied across the studies: from a single 45–60 min long intervention [ 29 ] to an intervention with twice weekly 2-h sessions over a three week period [ 24 ]. Two studies in this review used a pre-post design [ 33 , 34 ]; two studies used a repeated cross-sectional design [ 35 , 36 ]; one used a mixed design of RCT with a repeated cross-sectional design [ 37 ], and one used a repeated measures design with no control group [ 38 ].…”