Conducting HIV interventions for Asian Pacific Islander men who have sex with men: challenges and compromises in community collaborative research.

This article describes the process of implementing a community collaborative HIV prevention intervention research project targeting Asian and Pacific Islander (API) men who have sex with men (MSM). This article traces the genesis of the project--which linked university researchers with an API--focused community based organization--starting from its original concept and study design to the actual implementation and evaluation. This project provides a case study for analyzing the challenges and barriers encountered in community collaborative HIV intervention. Strategies and best practices for building community capacity in evaluation research are provided, and theoretical considerations for conducting community-based health interventions are raised.