A Latent Growth Model Evaluation of the Comprehensive, Integrated HIV Prevention Program Effect on Excessive Alcohol Risk Awareness and Excessive Alcohol Consumption Risk

Abstract

Aim: Since the early 1980s, excessive consumption among minority young adults (age 18-24 years old) became a severe public health concern in preventing the prevalence of HIV infection. In the United States, minority young adult population have a higher excessive alcohol consumption rate of HIV infection disproportionately infected with the disease than any other racial group. The continued spread of HIV among this vulnerable population has led to a need to identify risk and protective factors and evidence-based prevention strategies to reduce the transmission of the disease. A popular approach is the comprehensive, integrated HIV prevention program (CIHPP), a program based on the ecological epistemology framework. This framework views risk factors as a multilevel concentric system, including the individual, family, community, and societal levels. The theory asserts that any meaningful prevention strategy should examine the effect of these different levels on the population of interest. This study aims at testing the effectiveness of the CIHPP in raising awareness and excessive alcohol consumption risk of minority young adults.