# Community-Engaged Modeling and Implementation Science to Develop Re-Linkage Interventions for Black Sexual Minority Men with HIV

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · 2024 · $221,635

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Background: Black sexual minority men (SMM) are disproportionately impacted by HIV and multiple social
determinants of health (SDOH), such as housing instability, unemployment, and criminal justice involvement,
which pose significant barriers to linkage, engagement, and retention in HIV care. Interventions to address these
intersecting factors are resource intensive and logistically challenging, and the best implementation strategies
remain unclear. Agent-based models (ABMs) can be used to virtually evaluate candidate interventions and
implementation strategies to facilitate more efficient and timely intervention development, and combined with
iterative community and public health stakeholder feedback can provide important insights about which
intervention strategies and implementation levers would be most effective and efficient in real-world settings.
Objective: Building on an existing ABM platform, this proposal will utilize multiple existing local data sources
and new data collected through qualitative interviews and focus groups to better understand barriers to linkage,
engagement, and retention in HIV care among Black SMM. We will combine methods from epidemiology, agent-
based modeling, and implementation science to understand the potential impact of strategies to increase
engagement and retention in HIV care on population-level HIV transmission. Methods: We will characterize
individual, clinical, and structural level barriers to engagement and retention in care, identify relevant
implementation levers, and use this information to simulate (Phase 1) and pilot (Phase 2) implementation
strategies to improve re-linkage, engagement, and retention in care among previously diagnosed individuals who
are not consistently engaged in care. Significance: A better understanding of where and how to focus efforts to
relink out of care individuals and to improve HIV care engagement and retention has the potential to have an
important impact on the HIV epidemic and reduce health inequities. Once developed, our methods and models
can be adapted to other geographic areas to reflect local prevention priorities and can serve as an example
application of implementation science and ABM methods to advance HIV prevention science.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10991563
- **Project number:** 1R21MH137778-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Anna Hotton
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $221,635
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-01 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10991563

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10991563, Community-Engaged Modeling and Implementation Science to Develop Re-Linkage Interventions for Black Sexual Minority Men with HIV (1R21MH137778-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10991563. Licensed CC0.

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