# Health Coaching to Improve Comprehensive HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention in Adolescent Primary Care

> **NIH NIH K23** · CHILDREN'S HOSP OF PHILADELPHIA · 2021 · $184,924

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT 
  In the United States, HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) disproportionately affect adolescents and 
young adults (AYA). Youth aged 13-­24 years comprise ~21% of incident HIV cases. In addition, 2017 data 
demonstrated the fourth consecutive year of increasing STI rates, with the highest incidence occurring in AYA. 
Amidst these public health challenges, the 2018 licensure of tenofovir-­emtricitabine as HIV pre-­exposure 
prophylaxis (PrEP) for adolescents presents a key opportunity for enhancing youth HIV and STI prevention 
services. Currently, <2% of U.S. PrEP prescriptions are for adolescents <18 years of age. Pediatric primary care 
providers (PCPs) are thus well-­positioned to expand PrEP delivery. However, sexual health service delivery in 
primary care is hampered by PCP time constraints and competing demands. There is a critical need for both 
behavioral interventions to increase PrEP uptake and reduce STIs in adolescents, and implementation strategies 
to disseminate PrEP and enhanced sexual health services in adolescent primary care. The goal of this K23 
application is to facilitate Dr. Sarah M. Wood’s long-­term goal of becoming an independent investigator in 
adolescent HIV and STI prevention through an integrated program of training and applied research that will 
prepare her to meet the challenges of the current HIV and STI epidemics. This award will also focus on her 
short-­term goal of gaining the methodologic expertise needed to adapt, optimize for implementation, and 
test, a developmentally-­tailored, PrEP-­inclusive, HIV/STI prevention health coaching intervention for 
adolescents in primary care. The training objectives focus on content areas where she currently lacks the 
methodologic expertise to carry out this goal: 1) bio-­behavioral intervention adaptation, 2) implementation 
science, and 3) clinical trial methodology. This training plan will be bolstered by a highly skilled mentorship team 
with expertise in intervention development, adolescent sexual health and qualitative methodology, and primary 
care pragmatic clinical trials. The advisory team will provide further expertise in developmental tailoring, 
prevention science, implementation science, mental health measurement and targets, and clinical trial design 
and analysis. Dr. Wood’s training objectives will progress in parallel with, and inform, her applied research aims. 
Aim 1 will use qualitative methods and the ADAPT-­ITT framework to adapt the health coaching intervention. Aim 
2 will determine acceptability and feasibility of the intervention among primary care providers, and develop an 
optimized primary care implementation strategy for the intervention. Finally, Aim 3 will conduct a small 
randomized controlled trial to test the intervention for change in prevention self-­efficacy, as well as acceptability 
and feasibility and in adolescents with a history of STI. The culmination of Dr. Wood’s research and trainin...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10078286
- **Project number:** 5K23MH119976-02
- **Recipient organization:** CHILDREN'S HOSP OF PHILADELPHIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Sarah Marian Wood
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $184,924
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-01-01 → 2024-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10078286

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10078286, Health Coaching to Improve Comprehensive HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention in Adolescent Primary Care (5K23MH119976-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10078286. Licensed CC0.

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