Implementing a community-level assessment of Mpowerment, an HIV prevention intervention for young men who have sex with men (YMSM)

Three community-based organizations (CBOs) were funded to deliver the Mpowerment Intervention (a group-level intervention designed to reduce HIV risk) to YMSM. Mpowerment is being evaluated at the individual and community level in these sites to determine the effect of Mpowerment on the MSM community overall.

Methods: Using a repeated measures design, demographic and risk behaviors were collected by the CBOs with hand-held devices at baseline, and again at two time points after participants received the intervention. A community-level analysis (CLA) survey almost identical to the Mpowerment survey was administered to 100 YMSM in each of the 3 cities to assess changes in sexual risk behaviors in the community after implementation of Mpowerment. Process data were collected on the administration of the CLA, as well as the CLA surveys. A second CLA survey will be administered this year.

Results: Sites reported some difficulty in implementing an individual-level (ILOM) and community-level (CLA) survey at the same time, due to staffing constraints. Preliminary analyses of baseline data reported CLA participants are similar to ILOM participants in age and ethnicity, and overall in sexual risk (53% of the ILOM participants had unprotected sex with a male partner versus 54% of the CLA participants) but different by site in sexual risk and types of risk.

Conclusion: Difficulties and successes in administration of a community survey with hand-held devices by CBOs will be described. Analyses of 2nd CLA by the time of APHA will reveal whether the Mpowerment intervention affected community level risk behaviors in MSM.