The REACH (Reaching for Excellence in Adolescent Care and Health) project: study design, methods, and population profile

Human Leukocyte Antigen Class I Supertypes and HIV-1 Control in African Americans

“…The details of the study design and data structure of each entire cohort have been described elsewhere (31,41,45). African American race/ ethnicity was self-reported by all study participants in a questionnaire with four race/ethnic categories (i.e., African American, Caucasian, Hispanic, and Native American).…”

“…In brief, the REACH cohort is a prospective cohort of HIV-1-infected and high-risk uninfected adolescents from 13 U.S. cities. Of the 355 seropositive participants (71% African American, 75% female, and 91% with CD4 ϩ T-cell count of Ն200 cells/ml) accrued by March 2001, 227 participants, selected for their outcomes during the treatment-free follow-up intervals, were included in the genetic analysis (66% African American, 75% female, median age of 18 years, and 93% with CD4 count of Ն200 cells/ml) (45). Hence, our subset of 161 African Americans well represented the entire REACH cohort, according to both demographic (71% female, with a median age of 18 years) and clinical (93% with CD4 count of Ն200 cells/ml) characteristics.…”

CCL3L1 and CCL4L1: variable gene copy number in adolescents with and without human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection

“…The characteristics of this cohort have been described previously. 47,48 Between 1996 and 2000, data were collected at quarterly intervals for as many as 550 subjects, of whom 530 had a sample suitable for DNA extraction. Subjects selected for this study included 184 HIV-1 seronegatives (population controls) and 227 HIV-1 seropositives (161 African Americans and 66 others) with known history of exposure to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and up to four measurements of HIV-1 viral load (RNA copies per ml) in plasma and corresponding CD4 þ T-cell counts during ART-free þ T-cell counts at multiple ART-free intervals allowed the classification of three distinct disease groups (37 controllers, 134 intermediates and 56 noncontrollers) among HIV-1 seropositives.…”

The Next Generation of HIV Prevention for Adolescent Females in the United States: Linking Behavioral and Epidemiologic Sciences to Reduce Incidence of HIV

“…2 REACH was an observational study involving known HIV-infected 12-to 18-year-olds recruited from adolescent medicine clinics throughout the United States between 1996 and 1999. The study enrolled 242 HIV-infected female adolescents; 66% were older than 16 years of age, and 76% were black, non-Hispanic; 29% had dropped out of high school (compared to 16% of the HIV-uninfected girls); and 71% lived with their parent(s) (compared to 85% of the HIV-uninfected girls).…”