# Increasing HIV/STI Home Testing, Linkage to Care, and Linkage to PrEP via a Digital Intervention among Black Women in a Geographic Hotspot

> **NIH NIH R34** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN · 2022 · $191,138

## Abstract

Project Summary: Racial and geographic disparities in HIV have increased in the US, particularly among
Black women. Rural Black women are at greater risk of HIV infection, late-stage diagnosis, and are less likely
to sustain viral suppression compared to other racial and ethnic minority women. Black women also have
higher rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) than other women; many STIs have no symptoms, are
undiagnosed, and are untreated. Having an STI triples one’s risk for contracting HIV. Evidence indicates that
living in a rural community is a risk factor for lower rates of HIV screening, increased stigma surrounding an
HIV diagnosis, later HIV diagnoses, late adoption of antiretroviral therapy, therefore leading to increase HIV-
related mortality, highlighting barriers to testing, linkage to care, and linkage to pre-exposure prophylaxis
(PrEP). Home HIV/STI testing has promise to increase rates of testing by circumventing barriers and thereby
reduce medical costs through early detection and care. Home HIV/STI testing is also a prime opportunity to link
Black women at high risk for HIV to PrEP. Yet, home testing alone may not overcome all barriers. Pairing
home testing with an intervention designed to increase motivation and overcome barriers has the most promise
to increase HIV/STI testing rates. The proposed supplement to the awarded R34 (1R34MH128054-01) aims to
focus on Black women living in rural areas and conduct formative research (aim 1) that is imperative for
intervention development (aim 2). The intervention draws on 3 components, the situated, information-
motivation-behavioral (sIMB) model, mental contrasting, and implementation intentions to develop a new, web-
based intervention. This intervention is comprised of 5 sessions: 1) using the HIV/STI home testing kit, 2)
mailing in the kit, 3) checking results, 4) obtaining treatment, and 5) attending an appointment for PrEP. Each
session is structured the same: information regarding the importance of each behavior, motivation via mental
contrasting and methods to overcome the identified barriers, and behavioral skills to increase self-efficacy. The
supplement will occur in 2 phases that coincide with the aims to develop and culturally tailor the intervention. 1)
Conduct formative research to inform the development of the web-based HIV home testing intervention for
Black women at high risk for HIV living in rural areas. We propose to conduct in-depth interviews with 20 Black
women living in rural geographic areas in Central Texas to explore the constructs of sIMB, mental contrasting,
and implementation intentions to develop the intervention protocol to be field tested in aim 2. 2) develop and
tailor the web-based HIV home testing intervention for Black women living in rural geographic areas in Central
Texas. We will develop the web-based intervention and field test the intervention among 10 Black women living
in rural areas. The web-based design of the intervention greatly...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10559293
- **Project number:** 3R34MH128054-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
- **Principal Investigator:** Liesl A Nydegger
- **Activity code:** R34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $191,138
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-07-28 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10559293

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10559293, Increasing HIV/STI Home Testing, Linkage to Care, and Linkage to PrEP via a Digital Intervention among Black Women in a Geographic Hotspot (3R34MH128054-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-12 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10559293. Licensed CC0.

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