Assessment of the Effectiveness of the Comprehensive Integrated HIV Prevention Program in Reducing Risky Sexual Behavior and Increasing Safe Sex Practice among Minority Young Adults: A Latent Growth Curve Model Approach

Abstract

Aim: Since the early 1980s, sexual risk behaviors have become a severe public health concern in preventing the prevalence of HIV infection, especially among minority young adults. In the United States, minority young adults have higher than expected HIV infection than other racial groups. The spread of HIV infection among this vulnerable population has created a need to identify risk and protective factors, disease, and evidence-based prevention strategies to reduce disease transmission. The Comprehensive, Integrated HIV Prevention Program (CIHPP), is based on a derivative of the ecological epistemology framework that views risk factors as a multilevel concentric, including the individual, family, community, and societal levels. The framework asserts that any meaningful prevention strategy should examine these different levels and the effects on the population of interest. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of CIHPP in increasing sexual risk practice and reducing risky sexual behavior among minority young adults.