Abstract: An Integrated Intervention to Promote PrEP and Address Co-Occurring Partner Violence and Heavy Alcohol Use Among Women in Community Supervision: Study Protocol for a Hybrid Type 1 Randomized Controlled Trial (Society for Social Work and Research 29th Annual Conference)

Schedule:

Sunday, January 19, 2025

Columbia, Level 4 (Sheraton Grand Seattle)

* noted as presenting author

Dawn Goddard-Eckrich, EdD, Associate Research Scientist, Columbia University, New York, NY

Angelica Houston, MPH, Project Director, Columbia University, NY

Nabila El-Bassel, PhD, University Professor, Columbia University, New York, NY

Elwin Wu, PhD, Professor / Co-Director, Columbia University, New York, NY

Jaimie Meyer, MD, Professor, Yale University

Timothy Hunt, PhD, Associate Director, Columbia University School of Social Work, New York, NY

Milton Wainberg, MD, Professor / Co-Director, Columbia University / New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY

Laura Starbird, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania,, United States

Louisa Gilbert, PhD, Professor, Columbia University, New York, NY

Anindita Dasgupta, PhD, Associate Research Scientist, Columbia University, New York, NY

Background: To date, very few interventions to promote methods of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) have focused on cis-gender women, and none have targeted the large population of women in Community Supervision Programs (CSPs), who due to racialized drug laws, are disproportionately Black and Latinx. Advancing an effective PrEP intervention for women in CSPs holds promise for reducing HIV disparities by reaching a large number of minority women who remain at high risk for HIV. PrEP allows women to engage in an effective female-controlled HIV prevention strategy, which is especially important within the context of hazardous drinking and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). To date, however, there are no evidence-based syndemic-focused PrEP interventions for women that address the syndemic issues of hazardous drinking, IPV exposure, and HIV risk.

Methods: We provide an overview of the development and adaptation of a hybrid type-1 Effectiveness and Implementation randomized controlled trial (RCT) that will evaluate an m-Health syndemic intervention (PrEP for WINGS) and aims to increase PrEP initiation among women in CSPs in New York City who report hazardous drinking. The proposed RCT will be conducted with 300 women in CSPs.

Results: We describe how we adapted PrEP 4 WINGS, which addresses PrEP, IPV, and alcohol use into an integrated m-health application for women in CSPs. Adaptation strategies include;PRISM/RE-AIM(S) framework with a health equity lens to guide engaging community consultants (persons with lived experience); creating a Community Advisory Board, and key stakeholders; generating real-world challenges; and situations from community consultants to develop the intervention material to address barriers and improve engagement, skills-building, and initiation of PrEP, IPV and alcohol risk content.

Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this will be the first RCT testing the effect of an integrated evidence-based SBIRT for IPV and hazardous drinking with a decision aid for PrEP. Eligible women will be randomly assigned to receive either (1) PrEP for WIGNGS or (2) PrEP alone. Both conditions include the same evidence-based PrEP decision-making aid single session with peer navigation and will be delivered by Fortune Society, a community-based organization that serves women in CSPs. This study provides opportunities for implementing a self-paced mHealth intervention in real-world CSP settings.