Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Feb 19, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 21, 2018 - Apr 25, 2018
Date Accepted: May 15, 2018
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Reducing HIV Vulnerability Through a Multilevel Life Skills Intervention for Adolescent Men (The iREACH Project): Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial
Background:
Few HIV interventions have demonstrated efficacy in reducing HIV risk among adolescent men who have sex with men (AMSM), and fewer still have recognized the unique needs of AMSM based on race/ethnicity or geographical setting. Recognizing that youths’ HIV vulnerability is intricately tied to their development and social context, delivering life skills training during adolescence might delay the onset or reduce the consequences of risk factors for HIV acquisition and equip AMSM with the skills to navigate HIV prevention. This protocol describes the development and testing of iREACH, an online multilevel life skills intervention for AMSM.
Objective:
This randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to test the efficacy of an online-delivered life skills intervention, iREACH, on cognitive and behavioral HIV-related outcomes for AMSM.
Methods:
iREACH is a prospective RCT of approximately 600 cisgender adolescent males aged 13 to 18 years who report same-sex attractions. The intervention will be tested with a racial/ethnically diverse sample (≥50% racial/ethnic minority) of AMSM living in four regions in the United States: (1) Chicago to Detroit, (2) Washington, DC to Atlanta, (3) San Francisco to San Diego, and (4) Memphis to New Orleans.
Results:
This project is currently recruiting participants. Recruitment began in March 2018.
Conclusions:
iREACH represents a significant innovation in the development and testing of a tailored life skills-focused intervention for AMSM, and has the potential to fill a significant gap in HIV prevention intervention programming and research for AMSM.
International Registered Report:
RR1-10.2196/10174
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.