Reducing HIV health disparities among African American women through female condom use
This project will create Halo, a computer-based female condom education and training program for African American women who have sex with men. The two-session program will address male and female condom use skills, the benefits of female condoms for women and men, and strategies for introducing female condoms to a partner and negotiating their use. The skills and information contained in Halo will help African American women reduce unprotected sex acts, and ultimately prevent the spread of HIV, by adding an additional barrier method – the female condom – to their arsenal of protection strategies. To test the efficacy of Halo, we will recruit 120 women from a public STD clinic in Washington, DC to participate in a randomized controlled trial. Further, to assist clinics with the challenges of implementing a new intervention, we will develop Halo in Your Clinic. This website will provide female condom education for staff, answer frequently asked questions about female condoms and computer-based programs, and present a series of detailed checklists that administrators can use to determine their readiness to implement Halo.