A literature review of HIV interventions for black men who have sex with Men (MSM)

Background: Black MSM are disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS. Implementation science is necessary for the development and implementation of effective interventions. To better understand the current landscape of HIV implementation research for black MSM, we reviewed the current peer literature to identify rigorously evaluation HIV interventions for black MSM and to identify gaps in current HIV implementation science research for black MSM. Methods: We searched three databases: Pubmed, Scopus, and Google Scholar to identify peer review articles using the terms “African American or black” and “program or intervention or evaluation or implementations research or implementation science.” We identified a total of fifteen studies to include in our review. Results: We identified nine interventions for black MSM that had been rigorously evaluated. Seven of these nine interventions aimed to reduce HIV risk behaviors and four found a significant reduction in HIV risk behaviors. We identified two health service interventions for young black MSM. One successfully increased HIV testing and a second increased rates of retention in care. Discussion: Behavior change interventions that are grounded in theory and address the social contextual factors within which HIV risk behaviors are embedded appear to reduce HIV risk behaviors among black MSM in the short term. However, relying solely on behavioral interventions that reduce risk behaviors will most likely not have a population-level impact on HIV infection among black MSM. Therefore, there is a compelling and urgent need for comprehensive HIV testing, linkage to care, retention in care and adherence intervention studies for black MSM.