Clatts Michael C, Rodríguez-Díaz Carlos E, García Hermes, Vargas-Molina Ricardo L, Colón-López Vivian, Pérez-Rios Naydi, Goldsamt Lloyd, Jovet-Toledo Gerardo G
Graduate School of Public Health, University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
P R Health Sci J. 2011 Sep;30(3):101-8.
Puerto Rico has one of the highest incidence rates of HIV in the U.S. Concurrent with increases in sexually transmitted infections (STI), an increasing share of the new infections in PR are associated with sexual transmission. Much of the available research on sexual risk in PR derives from STI/HIV surveillance data. There is limited social and epidemiological research on sexual risk in PR, particularly in hidden and often hard-to-reach populations at high risk. Despite the absence of substantial resources that most epidemiological studies require, a research collaboration was initiated in 2007 between researchers in the School of Public Health at the University of Puerto Rico and the Centro Latinoamericano de Enfermedades de Transmisión Sexual (CLETS), one of the largest publicly funded centers for STI/HIV screening and treatment in the San Juan metropolitan area. Structured as a case study in the development of community-based research collaborations, this paper describes the early history and development of the project, including formative research, recruitment and training of students, and evolution in the study design that contributed to the current configuration of the ongoing "Core" study. Preliminary data are presented, highlighting data from a number of subpopulations that may contribute to our understanding of the role of behavioral risk in the STI/HIV epidemics in PR. More generally, the paper may guide the development of similar collaboration elsewhere in the Caribbean where HIV risk is increasing but where resources for research in high risk settings and groups are scarce.
波多黎各是美国艾滋病毒发病率最高的地区之一。随着性传播感染（STI）病例的增加，波多黎各新增感染病例中越来越大的比例与性传播有关。现有的关于波多黎人性风险的研究大多来自性传播感染/艾滋病毒监测数据。关于波多黎人性风险的社会和流行病学研究有限，尤其是在隐藏的、往往难以接触到的高风险人群中。尽管缺乏大多数流行病学研究所需的大量资源，但2007年，波多黎各大学公共卫生学院的研究人员与拉丁美洲性传播疾病中心（CLETS）开展了一项合作研究，该中心是圣胡安都会区最大的由公共资金资助的性传播感染/艾滋病毒筛查和治疗中心之一。本文以社区研究合作发展的案例研究形式，描述了该项目的早期历史和发展，包括形成性研究、学生招募和培训，以及研究设计的演变，这些演变促成了正在进行的“核心”研究的当前配置。文中展示了初步数据，突出了一些亚人群的数据，这些数据可能有助于我们理解行为风险在波多黎各性传播感染/艾滋病毒流行中的作用。更广泛地说，本文可能会为加勒比地区其他地方类似合作的发展提供指导，在这些地方，艾滋病毒风险正在增加，但高风险环境和群体的研究资源却很稀缺。
