Review turns up 14 interventions that improve HIV care for Black MSM
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A search of peer-reviewed articles published during a recent 7 1/2-year period turned up 14 interventions focused on improving HIV care for Black men who have sex with men in the United States, researchers reported in The Lancet HIV.
All 14 were associated with at least one statistically significant outcome, Alex S. Keuroghlian, MD, MPH, director of education and training programs at The Fenway Institute in Boston, told Healio.
Keuroghlian and colleagues conducted the study as part of an initiative funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s HIV/AIDS Bureau. They searched PubMed and PsycINFO for peer-reviewed articles published between Jan. 1, 2013, and June 1, 2020.
To be included, articles must have been published as original research and described an intervention focused primarily on improving one or more predetermine outcomes for people with HIV, including linkage-to-care, engagement and retention in care, medication adherence and viral suppression.
The studies must also have recruited a sample of at least 50% Black MSM with HIV. If they reported demographic characteristics separately, “the sample needed to be at least 50% Black and at least 50% MSM, or at least 75% male, 50% Black, and 50% gay or bisexual,” they explained. The studies had to be conducted in the U.S. and report quantitative outcomes.
Of the 14 interventions identified, more than half focused on younger populations and took place in the South. Many used social media, text messaging and smartphone apps to facilitate social support, deliver HIV education and encourage medication adherence, the researchers reported.
According to Keuroghlian and colleagues, medication adherence was the most common outcome and linkage to care was the least common.
The interventions “used a range of strategies to increase cultural relevance and address common barriers to optimal HIV outcomes for Black MSM.” However, they did not include interventions “focused on minimizing behavioral health barriers, and interventions directly addressing social determinants of health such as housing.”
“To accelerate the pace of implementation and scale-up of interventions for Black MSM with HIV, public health entities can pilot emerging interventions in real-world settings and use an implementation science approach to evaluate outcomes and assess the implementation strategies that drive or hinder effectiveness,” Keuroghlian said.
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