Know Your Network: Pilot testing a concurrency intervention and incorporating community feedback prior to scale up

Issues: Concurrent sexual partnerships establish network connectivity in populations with low rates of partner acquisition. This can accelerate the spread of HIV infection. National and international health and development agencies working in highly affected African countries have called for interventions to reduce multiple and concurrent partnerships (MCP). Description: The Know Your Network intervention (KYN) uses interactive exercises and a PDA survey of participants' sexual behavior to illustrate the impact of MCP. Researchers and study participants in western Kenyan communities with high HIV prevalence collaborated to develop KYN, and this project conducts formative research and elicits community and health care worker feedback to a trial run of KYN. Methods: We will use mabaraza (community meetings) and focus group discussions (FGD) to engage village leaders and community members in this project. Mabaraza with chiefs and elders will take place in April 2010. We will use qualitative data collected at the mabaraza to refine the intervention prior to the trial run in July 2010. In the weeks following the trial run, we will convene FGD to elicit community members' feedback about the intervention and how it could be improved prior to scale up. This project will provide essential feedback on the intervention's feasibility and acceptability that is important because KYN aims raise awareness and stimulate discussion of behavioral patterns deeply rooted in cultural norms and social structures. After revising the intervention according to community feedback, we plan to combine KYN with home-based counseling and testing efforts underway in the study area.