A Feasibility and Acceptability Study Testing Two Types of Smell Exposure Interventions in Middle-Aged Older Adults With HIV

Overall A pre-post two-group experimental design will be used. Participants will be recruited from the UAB 1917 HIV/AIDS Clinic which has a patient population of +3,900 and is the largest HIV medical provider within 100 miles. Participants will be recruited via two ways: 1) flyers posted in the UAB 1917 HIV/AIDS Clinic and 2) via 1917/CINIC participant list of participants who indicated and consented they are would like to be called for recruitment to studies (a technique used before and approved in other UAB IRB studies). Eligible participants will be consented at the UAB where a ~2 hr baseline assessment will be administered. Stratified random assignment will ensure an equal number of participants in each group by gender and smoking status. Men tend to have more olfactory dysfunction than women; therefore, it is important to control for gender upfront in the methodology. After training, participants will complete a posttest assessment.

Recruitment and Retention Procedures

Flyers. Flyers advertising the study will be provide to the UAB 1917 Clinic which they can hang or post electronically on their monitors.

Electronic Medical Record Query Using CNICS EMR Data Eligibility queries may be conducted using the CFAR Network of Integrated Clinical Systems (CNICS) EMR data. Specifically, CNICS participants (which comprise over 90% of UAB 1917 Clinic patients) have consented to be contacted to gauge interest in future studies. The Research Informatics Services Center (RISC) will provide us a list of patients meeting basic criteria (e.g., based on age, last clinic data, free from major comorbidities), and the investigators will then contact participants directly and tell them about the study and screen them over the phone as the investigators are doing in another active study protocol (RISC - IRB-300008740). When the study concludes, the investigators will also utilize RISC to yield a CNICS dataset for enrolled participants which will include basic health and HIV data (e.g., viral load).

Telephone Screen A brief telephone screening interview will be used to ensure that participants meet study inclusion/exclusion criteria. If participants meet entry criteria, they will be scheduled for a visit; appointment letters will indicate that if they develop a cold, flu, or other condition causing nasal obstruction in the interim, their appointment will be rescheduled. The appointment letter will instruct participants to refrain from eating highly aromatic foods (e.g., garlic) and abstain from liquor within 24 hrs of the appointment since these could affect olfactory tests. Thus, participants will review a signs and symptoms checklist to ensure they still meet study criteria. If they indicate they do not currently meet study criteria, they will be encouraged to participate when their situation changes. Once eligibility is confirmed, participants will sign an IRB approved consent form.