From research to community-based practice--working with Latino researchers to translate and diffuse a culturally relevant evidence-based intervention: the Modelo de Intervención Psicomédica (MIP) experience

Engineering behaviour change in an epidemic: the epistemology of NIH-funded HIV prevention science

Social scientific and public health literature on National Institutes of Health-funded HIV behavioural prevention science often assumes that this body of work has a strong biomedical epistemological orientation. We explore this assumption by conducting a systematic content analysis of all NIH-funded HIV behavioural prevention grants for men who have sex with men between 1989 and 2012. We find that while intervention research strongly favours a biomedical orientation, research into the antecedents of HIV risk practices favours a sociological, interpretive and structural orientation. Thus, with respect to NIH-funded HIV prevention science, there exists a major disjunct in the guiding epistemological orientations of how scientists understand HIV risk, on the one hand, and how they engineer behaviour change in behavioural interventions, on the other. Building on the extant literature, we suggest that the cause of this disjunct is probably attributable not to an NIH-wide positivist orientation, but to the specific standards of evidence used to adjudicate HIV intervention grant awards, including randomised controlled trials and other quantitative measures of intervention efficacy.

Getting Off: development of a model program for gay and bisexual male methamphetamine users

An evidence-based gay-specific cognitive behavioral therapy (GCBT) intervention for methamphetamine-using gay and bisexual men was adapted for use in a community-based setting, thereby moving research into practice. The 48-session, 16-week GCBT intervention was revised to 24 sessions requiring 8 weeks and renamed Getting Off: A Behavioral Treatment Intervention for Gay and Bisexual Male Methamphetamine Users. GCBT was modified for implementation within the limited resources and capacity of community-based organizations while also retaining drug use and HIV risk reduction outcomes. Since 2007, Getting Off has been sustained with public health funding at the community site and has been adopted by multiple community-based sites.

Participatory adaptation of an evidence-based, arthritis self-management program: making changes to improve program fit

We employed community-based participatory research techniques to adapt an evidence-based self-management program called the Arthritis Self-Help Program for older African American, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic white adults. Participants and instructors provided multiple recommendations for program change (including content additions or augmentations as well as changes in program delivery) in telephone interviews and focus groups. Recommendations were implemented through a collaborative process involving diverse stakeholders. Changes implemented respond to the preferences and needs of participants, as well as the strengths and constraints of program instructors and host sites. Improved fit for participants may extend the program's reach and effectiveness for older adults of color. In addition, the adapted Arthritis Self-Help Program may make the program more feasible and therefore sustainable for the host sites.