Abstract
BackgroundDespite efforts by the NIH to enhance the participation of women and minorities in clinical research, women with HIV continue to remain underrepresented in alcohol intervention research. The purpose of this study is to better understand the reasons why women with HIV and hazardous drinking participated in the WHAT-IF? study and to discuss their experience (positive or negative) in the study. The WHAT-IF? study was a randomized clinical trial that evaluated pharmacotherapy for a reduction in drinking among women with HIV.MethodsConvenience and theoretical sampling were used to recruit women with HIV and hazardous drinking to complete qualitative interviews. These women had previously completed a clinical alcohol intervention trial and had consented to be contacted in the future for study-related purposes. The biopsychosocial model was used to frame the interview questions that assessed multiple determinants of drinking behavior and helped explain linkages to broader health constructs.ResultsA total of 20 women with HIV and hazardous drinking completed the qualitative interview. Several factors were identified by the women as influential in their decision to participate in the WHAT-IF? study, such as the ability to quit or reduce their drinking to nonhazardous levels (biological), the ability to gain knowledge or a greater understanding of the negative effects of hazardous drinking on HIV disease progression (psychological), and peer pressure and monetary compensation (social). Also, the women identified factors (positive or negative) associated with their clinical trial experience, such as the effects of the study medication on the woman’s body (biological), thoughts and feelings toward study procedures (i.e. medication, lab work, study assessments) and the length of the study (psychological), and the interactions with the WHAT-IF? study staff (social).ConclusionRecruiting and retaining women with HIV in alcohol intervention research remains a challenge. Findings from this study suggest that women with HIV who are hazardous drinkers may benefit from participating in research studies that could help them to reduce or quit their drinking, increase their knowledge about specific behavior changes, and earn monetary compensation. Also, positive staff interactions may be instrumental in retaining minority women in alcohol intervention research.
Highlights
Despite efforts by the National Institute of Health (NIH) to enhance the participation of women and minorities in clinical research, women with HIV continue to remain underrepresented in alcohol intervention research
85% were African American, 80% were single, 100% of the women were unemployed and 60% had less than high school education
Several factors were identified by the women with HIV as influential in their decision to participate in the WHAT-IF? study
Summary
Despite efforts by the NIH to enhance the participation of women and minorities in clinical research, women with HIV continue to remain underrepresented in alcohol intervention research. Despite efforts by the National Institute of Health (NIH) to enhance the participation of women and minorities in clinical research, women with HIV continue to remain underrepresented in alcohol intervention research [5, 6, 29, 30]. A growing body of literature has evaluated gender disparities in treatment-seeking patterns among men and women in alcohol intervention research [15, 24, 25, 36, 44] In these studies, women who displayed positive attitudes toward treatment-seeking practices and perceived the benefits of participating in the study were found to be more likely to participate in alcohol intervention research. Well-documented barriers to treatment-seeking practices among women include lack of services for pregnant women and preferring one form of treatment of intervention over the other [19, 22, 23, 31,32,33]
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