Primary Prevention/HIV Social Epidemiology Program
Overview
This program supports research on behavioral interventions that reduce HIV transmission. The primary goals of the program are to support interdisciplinary research that develops, implements, and evaluates theoretically based interventions designed to prevent HIV transmission. This program seeks to advance understanding of the interaction between biological, psychological, behavioral, and social factors that influence the acquisition of HIV in adult populations. The program supports research that serves as the foundation for an empirically-based public health policy designed to avert as many new HIV infections as possible. As such, ASPQ supports basic prevention and intervention research that addresses at multiple levels factors that facilitate or impede HIV risk reduction.
Areas of Emphasis
- Develop, implement, evaluate, and disseminate innovative, theoretically-based, prevention intervention strategies that reduce risk of HIV acquisition.
- Enhance acceptability and uptake of biomedical advances (e.g., microbicides, vaccines, rapid testing, genetic advances), and increase understanding of their impact on transmission risk behavior.
- Identify factors and tailor interventions to the unique vulnerabilities to HIV infection among specific populations.
- Advance the development, testing, adaptation, and transfer of promising strategies for clinical and community settings that integrate effectively HIV prevention into available services.
- Target factors across multiple levels that interact to facilitate or impede initiation and maintenance of HIV risk reduction, including individual, dyad/family, social/community (e.g., networks, media), organizational (e.g., institutional policies), structural (e.g., public policy, laws, built environment), and societal/cultural factors (e.g., macro-economics, stigma, etc.).
- Evaluate the impact of technological and methodological innovations on the efficacy, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of prevention interventions.
Contact
Andrew D. Forsyth, Ph.D.
Program Chief
6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 6201, MSC 9619
301-443-8403, aforsyth@mail.nih.gov
