Opara Ijeoma, Gabriel Cora, Duran-Becerra Beatriz, Bond Keosha, Hill Ashley V, Hussett-Richardson Sydney, Alves Courtnae, Kershaw Trace
Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, United States.
City University of New York School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States.
JMIR Res Protoc. 2023 Aug 9;12:e45007. doi: 10.2196/45007.
Substance use among adolescent girls is associated with numerous risk characteristics, including engaging in sexual risk behaviors, which can lead to HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnoses. This is an important phenomenon to target as there is a significant race-gendered paradox that occurs when Black girls use and misuse drugs. When misuse occurs among this group, they are more likely to face harsher consequences and worse health outcomes than boys and other ethnic-minority girls. Therefore, there is a need to understand the risk and protective factors of drug use and sexual risk behaviors among Black girls and develop a robust intervention that can cater for this group.
We propose the development of a strengths-based prevention education intervention for Black girls between the ages of 13 and 18 years to promote protective factors.
A sequential, mixed methods study will be conducted, and we will use the first 3 steps of the ADAPT-ITT (assessment, decision, adaptation, production, topical experts, integration, training, testing) framework to begin the development of the intervention. Three aims will be described in this protocol. First, aim 1 is to explore sociocultural risk and protective factors among Black girls between the ages 13 and 18 years in drug use and HIV/STI prevention using focus group methodology and surveys. We will conduct at least 10 focus groups to include up to 75 Black girls or until we reach saturation. Our target sample size for the quantitative portion of the study will be 200 participants. Aim 2 will focus on deciding upon an intervention based on findings from aim 1 and forming a youth advisory board to guide intervention development. Aim 3 will be to conduct a pretest of the intervention with the youth advisory board to determine if the intervention is feasible and will be accepted by Black girls.
The study is part of a 2-year research pilot study award from the National Institutes of Mental Health. Data collection for this study began in October 2021. For aim 1, data collection is 95% complete. We expect to complete all data collection for aim 1 on or before May 30, 2023. Study activities for aim 2 are occurring simultaneously as data are being collected and analyzed and will be completed in the summer of 2023. Study activities for aim 3 will begin in the fall of 2023.
This study will be one of the few interventions that address both sexual health and drug use together and cater to Black girls. We anticipate that the intervention will be beneficial for Black girls across the nation to work on building culturally appropriate prevention education and building peer social supports, resulting in reduction or delayed substance use and improved sexual health.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05014074; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05014074.
INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/45007.
青春期女孩的物质使用与众多风险特征相关，包括参与性风险行为，这可能导致艾滋病毒和性传播感染（STI）诊断。这是一个需要关注的重要现象，因为当黑人女孩使用和滥用药物时，会出现显著的种族性别悖论。当这一群体发生滥用情况时，她们比男孩和其他少数族裔女孩更有可能面临更严厉的后果和更差的健康结果。因此，有必要了解黑人女孩药物使用和性风险行为的风险及保护因素，并制定一种能满足该群体需求的有力干预措施。
我们提议为13至18岁的黑人女孩开展一项基于优势的预防教育干预措施，以促进保护因素。
将进行一项序贯混合方法研究，我们将使用ADAPT-ITT（评估、决策、调整、生产、主题专家、整合、培训、测试）框架的前3个步骤来开始干预措施的开发。本方案将描述三个目标。首先，目标1是使用焦点小组方法和调查，探索13至18岁黑人女孩在药物使用和艾滋病毒/性传播感染预防方面的社会文化风险及保护因素。我们将至少开展10个焦点小组，纳入多达75名黑人女孩，或直至达到饱和状态。本研究定量部分的目标样本量为200名参与者。目标2将基于目标1的研究结果决定干预措施，并组建一个青年咨询委员会来指导干预措施的开发。目标3将是与青年咨询委员会一起对干预措施进行预测试，以确定该干预措施是否可行以及是否会被黑人女孩接受。
该研究是美国国立精神卫生研究所一项为期2年的研究试点项目的一部分。本研究的数据收集于2021年10月开始。对于目标1，数据收集已完成95%。我们预计在2023年5月30日或之前完成目标1的所有数据收集。目标2的研究活动在数据收集和分析的同时进行，将于2023年夏季完成。目标3的研究活动将于2023年秋季开始。
本研究将是为数不多的同时解决性健康和药物使用问题并针对黑人女孩的干预措施之一。我们预计该干预措施将有利于全国的黑人女孩开展符合文化背景的预防教育并建立同伴社会支持，从而减少或推迟物质使用并改善性健康。
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05014074；https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05014074。
国际注册报告识别码（IRRID）：DERR1-10.2196/45007。
