Evidence-based African-centered HIV/AIDS prevention interventions: Best practices and opportunities

ABSTRACT

African Americans have been disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic and today bear the significant brunt of the health crisis as reflected in their disproportionate representation among the number of persons living with HIV/AIDS, the cumulative numbers of persons who have succumbed to AIDS-related conditions, and those who are newly diagnosed with HIV. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at some point in their lives, an estimated one in 16 African American men and one in 32 African American women will be diagnosed with HIV infection. Despite accounting for a little more than 13% of the U.S. population, African Americans accounted for 43% of all new HIV cases in 2014. This article provides a critical review of evidenced-based, African-centered HIV primary prevention interventions designed to address the cultural realities of African Americans. Following a brief contextualization of the impact of HIV/AIDS among African Americans as a reflection of multisystemic complexities and a discussion of the authors’ procedures regarding inclusion of selected interventions, exemplars of highly efficacious African-centered HIV prevention interventions are reviewed, and central components of these interventions are discussed. Finally, the authors discuss implications and opportunities regarding the design and implementation of African-centered HIV prevention interventions targeting African Americans.

KEYWORDS:

• African-centered
• ecological theory
• evidence-based
• HIV/AIDS
• intervention
• practice