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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols

Date Submitted: Sep 25, 2019
Date Accepted: Nov 29, 2019

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

An Employment Intervention Program (Work2Prevent) for Young Men Who Have Sex With Men and Transgender Youth of Color (Phase 2): Protocol for a Single-Arm Mixed Methods Pilot Test to Assess Feasibility and Acceptability

Hill BJ, Motley DN, Rosentel K, VandeVusse A, Garofalo R, Schneider JA, Kuhns L, Kipke M, Reisner S, Rupp BM, Sanchez M, McCumber M, Renshaw L, West Goolsby R, Loop MS

An Employment Intervention Program (Work2Prevent) for Young Men Who Have Sex With Men and Transgender Youth of Color (Phase 2): Protocol for a Single-Arm Mixed Methods Pilot Test to Assess Feasibility and Acceptability

JMIR Res Protoc 2020;9(8):e16401

DOI: 10.2196/16401

PMID: 32773376

PMCID: 7445605

Work2Prevent: Protocol for employment as HIV prevention for young men who have sex with men (YMSM) and transgender youth of color – Phase 2 (ATN 151)

  • Brandon J. Hill; 
  • Darnell N. Motley; 
  • Kris Rosentel; 
  • Alicia VandeVusse; 
  • Robert Garofalo; 
  • John A. Schneider; 
  • Lisa Kuhns; 
  • Michele Kipke; 
  • Sari Reisner; 
  • Betty M. Rupp; 
  • Maria Sanchez; 
  • Micah McCumber; 
  • Laura Renshaw; 
  • Rachel West Goolsby; 
  • Matthew Shane Loop

ABSTRACT

Background:

Young men who have sex with men (YMSM), young transgender women (YTW), and gender nonconforming (GNC) youth of color face substantial economic and health disparities. In particular, HIV risk and infection among these groups remains a significant public health issue. In 2017, 17% of all new HIV diagnoses were attributed to male-to-male sexual contact among adolescents and young adults, ages 13-24 [1]. However, such disparities cannot be attributed to individual-level factors alone, but rather are situated within larger social and structural contexts that marginalize and predispose YMSM, YTW, and GNC youth of color to increased HIV exposure [2-9] Addressing social and structural risk factors requires intervention on distal drivers of HIV risk, including housing, food insecurity, educational attainment, and employment. Structural-level interventions mitigate barriers to health-positive behaviors and have been positively associated with health-promotive environments. Given the ways that economic instability may place YMSM, YTW, and GNC youth of color at higher risk for HIV acquisition, employment as prevention has the potential to be a scalable intervention that can be deployed among this group. The Work2Prevent (W2P) study aims to target economic stability through job readiness and employment as a structural-level intervention for preventing adolescent and young adult HIV among Black and Latinx YMSM, YTW, and GNC youth.

Objective:

To pilot-test a tailored, theoretically-informed employment intervention program among YMSM, YTW, and GNC youth of color. This intervention was adapted from iFOUR, an existing evidence-based employment program for HIV-positive adults, during Phase 1 of the W2P study.

Methods:

The employment intervention will be pilot-tested among at-risk YMSM, YTW, and GNC youth of color in a single-arm pre-post trial, to assess feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary estimates of efficacy.

Results:

Research activities began in March 2018 and are currently ongoing. To date, participant recruitment has been completed and follow-up is expected to continue through the end of November 2019.

Conclusions:

This study seeks to assess intervention feasibility and acceptability in the target populations and to determine preliminary efficacy of the intervention to increase employment and reduce sexual risk behaviors. If W2P demonstrates feasibility and acceptability, a larger multi-site trial implemented in community settings serving YMSM, YTW, and GNC youth of color is planned. If the multi-site trial contributes evidence that W2P is effective, then W2P has the potential to improve the economic stability of marginalized youth, contribute to a reduction in reliance on unregulated labor economies, including survival sex work, and ultimately reduce adolescent HIV exposure and infection. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov regisHIV/AIDS; YMSM; YTW; GNC Youth; LGBTQ; unemployment; homelessness; sex work.tration NCT03313310; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03313310, Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/76BSFOQXA


 Citation

Please cite as:

Hill BJ, Motley DN, Rosentel K, VandeVusse A, Garofalo R, Schneider JA, Kuhns L, Kipke M, Reisner S, Rupp BM, Sanchez M, McCumber M, Renshaw L, West Goolsby R, Loop MS

An Employment Intervention Program (Work2Prevent) for Young Men Who Have Sex With Men and Transgender Youth of Color (Phase 2): Protocol for a Single-Arm Mixed Methods Pilot Test to Assess Feasibility and Acceptability

JMIR Res Protoc 2020;9(8):e16401

DOI: 10.2196/16401

PMID: 32773376

PMCID: 7445605

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