Sisters Empowered, Sisters Aware: Three Strategies to Recruit African American Women for HIV Testing

Abstract

African American women account for 66% of new HIV infections among U.S. women, and many are not aware of their status. The authors compared three strategies (targeted outreach, alternate venues, and social networks) to recruit African American women for HIV testing in Houston, New York City, Baltimore, and Dayton. A quasi-experimental design (N = 4,942) was used to compare HIV-positivity rates and to identify risk factors for previously undiagnosed infection. A total of 2.1% of the women were newly diagnosed with HIV. The proportion newly identified as HIV-positive did not differ significantly among the three strategies (2.4% for social networks, 1.7% for both targeted outreach and alternate venues). However, the social networks strategy recruited women with greater risk behaviors and other characteristics associated with newly identified HIV infection and thus may be effective at reaching some high-risk women before they become infected. A combination of recruitment strategies may be warranted to reach various subgroups of African American women at risk for HIV.