Diffusing an HIV Prevention Intervention for African American Women: Integrating Afrocentric Components Into the SISTA Diffusion Strategy

Although race and gender are not indicators for HIV/AIDS, both have disproportionately impacted African American women. African American women represent 13% of the U.S. female population and 67% of the AIDS cases among women (Fitzpatrick, The U.S. HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Women and Adolescent Females, HIV Prevention Conference, Atlanta, GA, 2005). The statistics underscore the need for targeted interventions that employ culturally relevant activities to enhance self-esteem and communication skills while encouraging positive behavior change. Factors facilitating intervention effectiveness include culturally relevant components such as cultural practices, beliefs, values, norms, and ideologies (Janz et al., "Evaluation of 37 AIDS Projects," Health Education Quarterly, 23(1), 80-97, 1996). HIV prevention programs targeting African American women should incorporate an approach that includes ethnic heritage as ameans to instill pride, therebymotivating positive behavior change and empowering women. Afrocentric approaches incorporate philosophies relevant to people of African descent and may be spiritually based. Coupling culturally relevant HIV prevention interventions with a culturally relevant diffusion strategy may enhance community receptiveness. The SISTA intervention (DiClemente & Wingood, "A Randomized Controlled Trial of an HIV Sexual Risk Reduction Intervention for Young African-American Women," Journal of the American Medical Association, 274(16), 1271-1276, 1995) incorporates both culturally and gender-relevant activities to empower African American women to make healthy life choices. The article presents the strategy used to nationally diffuse SISTA, which incorporated Afrocentric components within implementation delivery. Lessons learned demonstrate the significance of integrating additional Afrocentric and gender-relevant material to an existing intervention for African American women.