HIV PREVENTION WITH AT RISK BATTERED WOMEN

This one year pilot study is submitted in response to the program announcement PAR-94-002, NIMH B/Start. Focussing exclusively on low income, minority battered women, this investigation develops and tests the feasibility of a brief, cognitive-behavioral intervention aimed at reducing risk behavior and increasing safer sex behavior. Related to the intervention development, the investigation will also expand understanding of (a) the ways that physical abuse affects sexual risk behavior and presents barriers to changing sexual behavior, and (b) substantively and culturally appropriate empowerment intervention strategies. The study will include three phases: (I) Knowledge Generation - including semi-structured interviews and focus groups with women who were discharged up to one year previous from a transitional housing facility for battered women, (2) Intervention Development - qualitative and quantitative analyses of Phase I data to inform decisions regarding the specification of the intervention protocol, (3) Pilot of the intervention to assess the feasibility of the research procedures (i.e., recruitment, pre- and post-testing, follow up, child care arrangements, transportation) and of the intervention protocol in terms of the ordering of components, leader training, and to refine substantive content. This pilot study will inform the development of a NIMH ROI application on HIV/AIDS prevention strategies with impoverished women who have been physically abused. This study will be conducted by an investigator from the Columbia University School of Social Work. Subjects for Phases 1 and 3 will be recruited from discharge lists of the Sarah Burke House (SBH), the largest transitional housing facility for physically abused women and their children in the New York City area operated by the Sanctuary for Families. Participants will meet eligibility criteria based on sexual risk behavior. For phase 1, a total of 100 women will be recruited for both an individual interview and to participate in a focus group. For phase 3, a total of 20 women will be recruited to receive the intervention. Two treatment groups will be configured. One group will be conducted in Spanish, the other in English. Women will be pretested and post-tested 2 months post intervention in terms of sexual risk behavior, and other variables.