HIV Testing and Social Determinants Program

Overview

This program specifically encourages studies to develop and test novel approaches to increase HIV testing and identification of people living with HIV for active linkage to care, or high-incidence populations for active linkage to ongoing prevention services. This program also encourages research to understand social determinants of health (e.g., HIV-related intersectional stigma and discrimination) and to intervene on the socioecological factors that can facilitate or impede optimal access to and use of effective HIV prevention strategies (e.g., HIV testing and HIV Care Continuum). Socioecological factors of interest include, but are not limited to societal policies, structural and economic influences, environmental and community settings, sexual and social networks, and individual mental health functioning. Studies that investigate the optimal combination of interventions, including multi-level approaches to ensure the most effective uptake and effectiveness of HIV prevention and testing are encouraged as well. Research may be conducted in U.S. domestic settings or in international settings that have high HIV incidence or prevalence, with an emphasis on approaches likely to have broad impact.

Please refer to NIH-wide Social Determinants of Health Research Coordinating Committee  for guidance on conceptualization; plus, where relevant, investigators pursuing HIV-related human subjects research are also encouraged to include one or more measures related to individual- or structural-level social determinants of health (SDoH; https://www.phenxtoolkit.org/collections/view/6 ). The SDoH collection available in the PhenX Toolkit is especially useful for studies assessing how individual and structural SDoH influence HIV-related outcomes and contribute to health disparities. Related to SDoH, we also encourage including measures assessing multilevel HIV-related (and intersectional) stigma and discrimination using the Stigma and Discrimination Research Toolkit

Areas of Emphasis

• Develop and test innovative and novel approaches to expand HIV testing and linkage to prevention or care services and examine public health impact.
• Develop and test interventions to address the multiple influences of society (e.g., structural factors such as economic, legal, stigma and discrimination or healthcare practices or policies), community (e.g., settings such as neighborhoods), interpersonal (e.g., sexual or social networks), and the individual (e.g., mental health and well-being) on the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.
• Studies to identify extra-individual level factors (e.g., interpersonal such as social networks; community such as social norms or resources; and societal such as discrimination, polices or laws) associated with HIV vulnerabilities or resiliencies (positive outcomes) over time.

Contact

Gregory Greenwood, PhD, MPH
5601 Fishers Lane
240-669-5532, gregory.greenwood@nih.gov