The AIDS epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa continues to affect all facets of life throughout the subcontinent. Deaths related to AIDS have driven down the life expectancy rate of residents in Zambia, Kenya, and Uganda with far-reaching implications. This book details the current state of the AIDS epidemic in Africa and what is known about the behaviors that contribute to the transmission of the HIV infection. It lays out what research is needed and what is necessary to design more effective prevention programs.
HIV is spreading rapidly, and effective treatments continue to elude science. Preventive interventions are now our best defense against the epidemicâ€"but they require a clear understanding of the behavioral and mental health aspects of HIV infection and AIDS. AIDS and Behavior provides an update of what investigators in the biobehavioral, psychological, and social sciences have discovered recently about those aspects of the disease and offers specific recommendations for research directions and priorities. This volume candidly discusses the sexual and drug-use behaviors that promote transmission of HIV and reports on the latest efforts to monitor the epidemic in its social contexts. The committee reviews new findings on how and why risky behaviors occur and efforts to develop strategies for changing such behaviors. The volume presents findings on the disease's progression and on the psychosocial impacts of HIV and AIDS, with a view toward intervention and improved caregiving. AIDS and Behavior also evaluates the status of behavioral and prevention aspects of AIDS research at the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The volume presents background on the three institutes; their recent reorganization; their research budgets, programs, and priorities; and other important details. The committee offers specific recommendations for the institutes concerning the balance between biomedical and behavioral investigations, adequacy of administrative structures, and other research management issues. Anyone interested in the continuing quest for new knowledge on preventing HIV and AIDS will want to own this book: policymakers, researchers, research administrators, public health professionals, psychologists, AIDS advocates and service providers, faculty, and students.
This book explores the various psychosocial, sociocultural, and contextual factors that affect the sexual health of Black students who attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and how this environment can help develop strategies to improve sexual health outcomes for its students. The college environment provides young people with a new sense of independence, self-determination, and peer pressure to engage in risky sexual behaviors, and research has shown that Black students at HBCUs bear a disproportionate burden of poorer sexual health outcomes than students at predominately white institutions (PWIs). Uniquely focusing on the sexual milieu of Black students, Hall-Byers explains why a better understanding of these settings is needed to guide successful interventions that benefit and support the sexual health of Black students. Chapters compare data and research on sexual health outcomes of young Black men and women in comparison to those at predominately white institutions, as well as looking at the role of HBCU campus contexts and cultures, the potential psychosocial and sociocultural influences, what culturally responsive approaches may look like, and recommendations on how HBCU campuses can increase positive sexual health, such as through access, collaborative efforts among administrative offices, and reallocating resources. Sexual Health and Black College Students aims to advance the translation of culturally grounded research into effective practice and is essential reading for researchers and practitioners in sex therapy, public health, and social science as well as for college health staff, including nurses, student affairs, and campus wellness centers.
This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the theories, methods and approaches for reducing HIV-associated risk behaviors. It represents the first single source of information about HIV prevention research in developed and developing countries. It will be an important resource for students, researchers and clinicians in the field.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, young people aged 18 to 25 are at a significant risk for acquiring and transmitting HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and other STIs (sexually transmitted infections). Primary developmental processes that place college students particularly at risk include the experience of intimacy, sexual desires and the centrality of the peer group. During these routine developmental processes, college students experiment with unprotected sex, multiple sex partners and alcohol and illicit drugs, all of which are contributing risk factors for HIV/STI infections. Early diagnosis, treatment and prevention of HIV and other STIs is germane to promoting the sexual health of college students and reducing high HIV/STI infection rates among young people. This edited volume will provide innovative and cutting-edge approaches to prevention for college students and will have a major impact on advancing the interdisciplinary fields of higher education and public health. It will explore core ideas such as hooking up culture, sexual violence, LGBT and students of color, as well as HIV and STI prevention in community colleges, rural colleges and minority serving institutions.
