HIV Risk and Prevention in Women

The study uses an adaptive design. That is, the procedures and phases of the study experienced by a participant depend to some extent on their responses to earlier phases. Ultimately, this design yields a number of practice relevant pathways and endpoints, each of which has a testing rate associated with it.

Phase-I is initial screening for risk status, collecting background data, and ascertaining whether there has been recent independent HIV testing. If there has been independent testing, information about the independent testing is collected and the participant's involvement is complete.

Those who are not independent testers enter Phase-II. Phase II will include: randomization to opt-in vs. opt-out conditions; a survey asking about reasons for acceptance or non-acceptance; participating in a focus group in which participants who have not accepted HIV testing (non-accepters) and those who accepted (accepters) will be asked to discuss their health beliefs related to HIV prevention, barriers and reasons for testing/not testing; then (5) after the focus group is complete, privately offer another testing opportunity to non-accepters, under the same opt-in or opt-out strategy to which they previously were randomized. The design was selected in order simultaneously answer a number of questions that we believe will be important for engineering a testing and prevention strategy suitable for testing in a subsequent study: (1) identify key attitudes, beliefs and knowledge (survey); (2) contrast opt-in and opt-out strategies (randomized trial); (3) generate qualitative data about reasons for decisions in the women's own words (focus group); and (4) identify any incremental benefit related to peer discussion.

Inclusion criteria

• The participant's sexual risk behaviors (i.e., a) two or more partners in the last 12 months, or her partner's HIV risk (e.g., HIV positive, no HIV testing and a diagnosis of sexually transmitted diseases in last 12 months, multiple partners, blood transmission, male partners, served in prison, or drug use) and no or inconsistent condom use in the last 3 months, and no HIV testing in the last 12 months, or b) any sexually-transmitted disease and no HIV testing in the last 12 months).

Exclusion criteria

• Does not speak Russian, are currently pregnant, have a condition that might preclude a finger-stick procedure, or have tested HIV positive in the past.