The Behavioral and Prevention Research Branch (BPRB) was formed in 1989
when the Division of STD/HIV Prevention was reorganized. Its principal
goal was to create a foundation of behavioral and social science expertise
within the National Center for Prevention Services and to foster interdisciplinary
research approaches to all applied research in the Division and the Center
as a whole. The multidisciplinary team of anthropologists, sociologists,
psychologists, epidemiologists, statisticians, demographers, analysts,
and post doctoral fellows in collaboration with partners within and external
to CDC generated a research agenda that will carry on to the year 2000.
While the Branch's work attempted to find ways to change behaviors associated
with the acquisition and transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted
infections at the group, individual and community levels, the work also
created a behavioral and social science environment of collegial and disciplined
research that crossed numerous Centers and Divisions at the CDC as well
as other Federal Agencies. Every year the Branch has published a compendium
of research projects, publications, and work products. During this year
of transition when the former Behavioral Prevention and Research Branch
(BPRB) gives birth to a new Branch, the Behavioral Interventions and Research
Branch (BIRB), this document will serve to once again share with our partners,
within and external to CDC, those findings and opportunities resulting
from the energy and enthusiasm of the Behavioral and Social Scientists
in the National Center for Prevention Services.
This manuscript is the final collective work of BPRB and is intended for
use by our partners in research and service, by our sister agencies, and
by our customers: the State and local health agencies and community based
organizations which seek the most effective interventions and measures
to reflect success in reducing morbidity and mortality associated with
STD and HIV. These project summaries provide some answers to the questions
of what we have learned and what works by focusing on the results and implications
generated by the projects conducted between 1990 and 1995. Readers who
are interested in the scientific methods and theories which produced the
results are referred to BPRB's annual research summaries and the publications
listed at the end of the project summaries in this manuscript.
The results in this manuscript meet four criteria for inclusion. First,
they are substantive, conceptual, or preliminary but not methodologic.
Second, they are directly related to the purpose of the respective project.
Third, they are statistically significant or described with caveats. Lastly,
in the case of multi-site projects, they are common or similar in at least
two sites. Occasionally, projects produced results that did not meet the
above criteria but were of compelling interest. These results are placed
under the heading of "other findings." The implications which
are included are specific suggestions for the application of the results.
Only those publications that are readily accessible to readers, such as
journal articles and published meeting abstracts, are listed. Products
are those materials produced, or planned to be produced, by or as a result
of the project and which are, or will be, available to readers, such as
videos, software, guidelines, curricula, and policy statements.
