Projects
Mobile Health (mHealth) Tools to Improve Delivery Quality of a Family Home Visiting Intervention
Principal Investigator: Alethea Desrosiers
Agency: NIH/NIMH
This study aims to (1) apply a user-centered design to develop and test mHealth tools to improve supervision and fidelity monitoring of community health workers (CHWs) delivering the Family Strengthening Intervention for Early Childhood Development (FSI-ECD) evidence-based behavioral home-visiting intervention, and (2) conduct a pilot randomized controlled trial of the FSI-ECD to assess feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects on caregiver mental health, emotion regulation, caregiving behaviors, and family violence in high-risk families with children aged 6-36 months in comparison with control families receiving standard care.
Mobile Health Intervention to Increase HIV Self Testing and Linkage to Services for High-Risk Men in China
Investigators: Don Operario (Contact PI), Shufang Sun (co-Investigator)
Agency: NIH/NIMH (R01 MH123352)
We propose an intervention entitled “WeTest- WeLink” that builds on years of formative work with MSM in China (R34MH106349). Guided by the Information- Motivation-Behavioral (IMB) model and Minority Stress Theory, we will employ a user-centered design process to refine and expand app features to support repeat HST uptake, behavioral risk reduction, stigma coping strategies, and self-efficacy to link to HIV care. We will use an Effectiveness-Implementation Hybrid Type 1 design consisting of a three site, 2-arm RCT to test HST and linkage to HIV related care outcomes as well as qualitative research to examine implementation and scalability. We will recruit 1,800 HIV negative MSM in three cities with HIV high-prevalence among MSM – Chengdu (9%), Suzhou (13%), Wuhan (11%) – allocated to the intervention (access to the WeTest-WeLink app) or control group (education about HST and passive referral to HIV care for individuals who test HIV positive). We will assess participants at 6-, 12-, and 18 months to measure intervention effects on primary outcomes: repeated use of HST (including photographic confirmation) and linkage to care for individuals who test HIV-positive.
Developing Internet-Delivered, Mindfulness-based Intervention to Reduce HIV Risk and Promote Mental and Sexual Health among Young Adult MSM
Principal Investigator: Shufang Sun
Agency: NIH/NCCIH (K23 AT011173)
The HIV epidemic disproportionately affects young adult gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (YMSM; age 18-34), a population largely impacted by stigma (i.e., minority stress) and mental health issues, both create a “syndemic” condition surrounding sexual risk behaviors and suboptimal HIV testing. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are efficacious in reducing psychological distress and promoting behavioral health, and successful adaptation of MBI for content and internet-delivery may offer an innovative, transdiagnostic, and scalable approach to reach YMSM and address this public health issue. Using an evidence-based adaptation model (ADAPT-ITT) for HIV behavioral health, the current project aims to systematically adapt mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), an empirically-supported intervention with efficacy, to the context of HIV prevention and minority stress reduction via internet-based delivery among distressed, high risk YMSM, followed by a randomized feasibility trial.