Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2023

Publication Title

American Journal of Men’s Health

Keywords

couples-based HIV prevention, Latino male couples, feasibility and acceptability tria

ISSN

1557-9891

Volume

17

Issue/No.

2

Abstract

Despite recent emphasis on couples-based HIV prevention interventions, efficacious interventions for Latino male couples have yet to be tested. The study examined the feasibility and acceptability of the Connecting Latinos en Pareja (CLP) intervention, a couples-based HIV prevention intervention for Latino male couples. This pilot demonstrated high feasibility, meeting targets for recruitment, retention, and intervention completion. We recruited a diverse cohort of 46 individuals/23 couples with a retention rate of 80% over 6 months and a 100% intervention completion rate in both conditions (four structured couple sessions in each condition). This pilot RCT was not powered to detect significant intervention impact on the primary outcome; however, there was a significant increase in relationship functioning among couples in the intervention group relative to controls and promising trends in changes in several key outcome and mediating variables. Secondary analysis documented trends in the expected directions for several other key hypothesized mechanisms of action (stimulant use, psychological symptoms, quality of life) as well as the primary outcome of proportion of protected sex acts (overall and broken out by main vs. outside partners). Qualitative exit interviews revealed high levels of acceptability of the CLP intervention. Participants highlighted affective component of the intervention and perceived effectiveness in improving dyadic communication skills and safer sex practices. Our findings show that a pilot trial of CLP is highly feasible and acceptable, with CLP demonstrating promising evidence of changes in key intervention mechanisms.

Comments

Funding: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under a grant from the Minority HIV and AIDS Research Initiative (MARI) (1U01PS005124-02; PI: Martinez).

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

DOI

10.1177/15579883231167106

Peer Reviewed

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