Piloting a Community Based Participatory Research Approach to Investigate the Health Issues and Resource Needs of Latinas Living with HIV

Background

HIV/AIDS is becoming more concentrated in ethnic/racial minorities, women, and the poor even as these subgroups have less and less access to effective therapy, health care, and prevention services.  In Wisconsin, rates of HIV infection among Hispanic women are 19-fold greater compared to White women.  Hispanics comprise 3.6% of the state’s female population, but account for 13% of reported cases of HIV in women.  Relatively few US investigations have focused on Latinas living with HIV.  These is a need for systematic attention to the ways in which cultural factors such as language, acculturation, and meaning of HIV illness affect Latinas (1).

Purpose

A community solidarity-building approach like community based participatory research (CBPR) holds great promise for developing and implementing culturally competent research and for devising policies and programs to reduce health disparities.  In the tradition of liberationist movements, practitioners of CBPR work with community stakeholders as co-researchers to facilitate the production of knowledge directly useful to the groups themselves.

Goal

Pilot a CBPR approach to investigate the health issues and resource needs of urban HIV-infected Latinas residing in Milwaukee.

 

Specific Aims

1. Explore the impact of HIV in the lives of 15 HIV-infected Latinas through qualitative interviews (conducted in the participant’s primary language)
2. Integrate the dynamic involvement of a community advisory board throughout all stages of the study including:

• Research design
• Sample recruitment
• Data collection
• Data translation
• Data analysis
• Dissemination of results

Timeline

May 1, 2007 – December 31, 2009 

Progress to Date

• All interviews, conducted with participants in Spanish, are complete.
• Sophisticated narrative data analyses complete.
• Regularly meetings of the CBPR team have been held.
• Seeking funding to disseminate study findings using interactive Social Theatre.

 

Key Partners

UW-Milwaukee College of Nursing

Patricia E. Stevens, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., Professor

 

Center for Urban Population Health

Loren Galvao, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Director for Community Partnerships

Virginia Zerpa-Uriona, M.P.H., Outreach Specialist

 

The Community Advisory Board consists of community members and individuals from the following organizations: 

Sixteenth Street Community Health Center

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin

United Migrant Opportunity Services

The Healing Center

A community member affected by HIV

 

Funding Source

Center for Urban Population Health’s Center Scientist Development Program through the Wisconsin Partnership Fund 

Academic Accomplishments

Zerpa-Uriona, V.  (2008).  Preliminary study findings were presented in Spanish at the Breaking the Silence on HIV/AIDS Conference, sponsored by Planned Parenthood to commemorate Latino HIV Awareness Day (October).

 

Stevens, P., Zerpa-Uriona, V., Barker, M., Toscano, M., Brautigam, A., Ward, J., Galvao, L., & Frazer, D.  (2009).  Challenges of Translating Research Findings to Social Action in Community-Based Participatory Research Studies.  11th Community-Campus Partnerships for Health Conference, Milwaukee, WI (scheduled for April but conference was subsequently cancelled due to the economic crisis).

 

Zerpa-Uriona, V. & Stevens, P.  (2009).  Struggles and Victories of 15 Latina Women Infected with HIV in Milwaukee.  33rd Annual Women’s Studies Conference/4th Annual LGBTQ Conference, sponsored by the University of Wisconsin System Institute on Race and Ethnicity, Madison, WI (April).

 

References

1.  Statistics cited are from The epidemic of HIV infection in Wisconsin: Review of case surveillance data collected through 2006, Neil Hoxie, M.S., Epidemiologist, AIDS/HIV Program, Wisconsin Division of Public Health.