Heterosexual African American men and HIV prevention

The overall goal of this project is to develop a targeted, culturally relevant social marketing campaign for HIV prevention intervention for heterosexual African American men in college. Prevention programs in the US have addressed the drug-using risks of heterosexual men; however, few have addressed their sexual behavior (Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, 2001). The literature suggests that social marketing campaigns have an etablished record of success in HIV/AIDS prevention Lombardo & Leger, 2007). However, most efforts continue to target women and men who have sex with men (MSM), while the HIV prevention needs of heterosexual African American men go largely ignored—not to mention risky behaviors in the context of the college population. Over a 6-month period, researchers will employ the Transtheoretical Model to develop a social marketing campaign incorporating the 4Ps of the marketing mix. Formative evaluation will yield insight into the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors; but also types of media that interests them and places where they are more likely to gather information about HIV/AIDS. A focus group of 15 heterosexual African American men enrolled in college will be recruited to pretest materials. Discussions will be transcribed and analyzed using theme analysis. Findings are expected to support development of more targeted HIV prevention interventions for special populations.