ID and Testing Via Friendship Networks

Completed

• Conditions: Asymptomatic HIV; HIV Infections
• Interventions: Other: Index Recruiter; Other: Friendship Network Member

• Registration Number: NCT00841360
• Lead Sponsor: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Brief Summary

This is a pilot study with a cross-sectional research design to recruit Hispanic/Latina and African American adolescent and young adult women, aged 13-24 years to serve as index recruiters, who will in turn recruit members of her female friendship network, aged 13 years and older to undergo HIV screening. This approach seeks to identify new HIV infections in the target population.

Detailed Description

The proposed pilot study will utilize a cross-sectional research design to recruit Hispanic/Latina and African American young women to undergo HIV screening. The research design will consist of a friendship-based, female network recruitment approach that incorporates a dual method of incentives for index recruiters and network members as a strategy for identifying new HIV infections in the target population. Among sexually experienced young women (many of whom who reside in communities with a high prevalence of STIs and HIV), 50 who self-identify as HIV positive, 50 who self-identify as HIV negative (based on receiving a negative HIV test within 12 months prior to study consent), and 50 whose HIV status is self-reported as unknown (who have no history of prior HIV testing or who had HIV screening more than 12 months prior to date of study consent) will be recruited. These women will serve as index recruiters to recruit two or more (on average four) female friendship network members to undergo HIV screening. The index recruiters will be recruited through three participating ATN sites utilizing the existing infrastructure within the AMTUs and their community and clinical partnerships. Index participants that agree to take part in this research will be asked to self-disclose their HIV status, to complete a risk assessment and indicate their willingness to recruit their close female friends to undergo HIV screening. In addition, index recruiters who self-identify as HIV negative and those who do not know their HIV status will be invited to undergo HIV screening.

Index recruiters will be given up to four months to recruit members of their friendship network. At the end of this recruitment period or after successful recruitment of two or more friendship network members, whichever comes first, all index recruiters will be asked to complete a brief questionnaire that describes factors that both facilitated and hindered their ability to recruit the friendship network members. Sexually experienced friendship network members who agree to participate in the study will also complete a risk assessment regardless of whether or not they agree to undergo HIV screening. Participation in this study will be strictly on a voluntary basis.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2009-01
• Study First Submitted: 2009-02-09
• Study First Submitted QC: 2009-02-09
• Study First Posted: 2009-02-11
• Primary Completion: 2010-06
• Study Completion: 2010-06
• Status Verified: 2016-02
• Last Update Submitted: 2017-02-27
• Last Update Posted: 2017-02-28

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: Female
• Target Recruitment: 535

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

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Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

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Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
HIV Status Unknown	Index Recruiter	Participant self-discloses as HIV negative (no history of prior HIV testing, or HIV screening more than 12 months prior to date of study consent). Sexually experienced females between the ages of 13 and 24 years old and of African American race, Hispanic/Latina ethnicity, or mixed-race/ethnicity, which must include African American race and/or Hispanic/Latina ethnicity.
Friendship Network Members	Friendship Network Member	Friendship network members will also consist of sexually experienced females, aged 13 years and older. Although most members are expected to be of African American race and/or Hispanic/Latina ethnicity, all races and ethnicities will be included.
HIV Negative	Index Recruiter	Participant self-discloses as HIV negative (based on receiving a negative HIV test within 12 months prior to study consent). Sexually experienced females between the ages of 13 and 24 years old and of African American race, Hispanic/Latina ethnicity, or mixed-race/ethnicity, which must include African American race and/or Hispanic/Latina ethnicity.
HIV Positive	Index Recruiter	Participant self-discloses as HIV positive. Sexually experienced females between the ages of 13 and 24 years old and of African American race, Hispanic/Latina ethnicity, or mixed-race/ethnicity, which must include African American race and/or Hispanic/Latina ethnicity.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Number of young women (HIV status positive, negative, or unknown) who are identified and recruited to serve as index recruiters divided by the number of young women screened.	2
Proportion of index recruiters who recruit two or more of their female, friendship network members to undergo HIV screening.	2 years
A preliminary estimate of HIV infection prevalence among the friendship networks of all index recruiters and separately in the friendship networks of each group of index recruiters.	2 years
A description of factors that facilitate and hinder index recruiters in recruiting female friendship network members.	2 years
A description of factors that facilitate and hinder HIV screening among female friendship network members.	2 years

Trial Locations

Locations (3)

University of Miami School of Medicine; 🇺🇸 Miami, Florida, United States

Stroger Hospital of Cook County; 🇺🇸 Chicago, Illinois, United States

Montefiore Medical Center; 🇺🇸 Bronx, New York, United States