These guidelines have been developed by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA)
to assist the persons who compile and interpret HIV prevention and care data for
state, territorial, or local HIV/AIDS epidemiologic profiles. The purpose of the
document is to provide 1 set of guidelines to help profile writers produce
integrated epidemiologic profiles and advise them concerning how to interpret
epidemiologic data in ways that are consistent and useful in meeting the
planning needs of both HIV/AIDS prevention and care programs. Integrating
prevention and care data should help to streamline the work of health department
staff, community planning groups, and planning councils by reducing duplicated
effort and by promoting consistency and comparability of data and terms in
prevention as well as care planning.
The guidelines are written in 5 chapters that (1) provide an
overview of integrated HIV epidemiologic profiles, (2) outline what writers need
to do to start creating a comprehensive profile, (3) address how to describe the
epidemic in a jurisdiction, (4) describe the process of completing the profile,
and (5) address special issues that may arise during the writing of the profile.
Each chapter is organized into sections. Some sections include examples of
analyses and formats for presenting data to help illustrate key points. Other
sections include questions that should be considered during development.
Specific data and elements to meet the requirements of CDC and of HRSA are also
addressed. Highlights of each chapter are as follows:
The guidelines also include appendixes, a glossary of terms and
concepts common to HIV epidemiologic profiles, and a list of references and
suggested readings. The appendixes consist of the following:
- Sample Integrated Epidemiologic Profile for HIV/AIDS
Prevention and Care Planning—Louisiana
Staff in Louisiana’s HIV/AIDS Surveillance Program collaborated
with other health department entities and CDC to create the sample profile. The
format is similar to the structure recommended in the guidelines: multiple sources of
prevention and care related data are used to describe the epidemic, the presentation is
user-friendly, and the profile includes a detailed list of the sources of data.
Louisiana has had HIV reporting since 1993; therefore, both HIV and AIDS data are
presented.
Epidemiologic profiles should be compiled, interpreted, and
summarized by epidemiologists in the state or local health department in
collaboration with interested planning group members. Planning group members should, at a
minimum, assist in framing the questions to be addressed by the profile.
The data in an integrated HIV epidemiologic profile may be used
for several purposes, including community planning, designing and implementing
prevention activities and evaluation programs, and informing policy decisions and
documenting care needs for underserved groups. Researchers, consumers, legislators, and the
media also use the data.
We hope you will find these guidelines helpful. The information
should be used as a starting point in the development of your profile. The
recommended analyses represent the minimum data for an integrated profile. Depending on the
need for HIV prevention and care services in a jurisdiction, additional analyses may be
required. Once you start writing your document, you may have questions about the
development process.
Technical assistance with analyzing, interpreting, and
presenting prevention-related data and care-related data is available from CDC and HRSA,
respectively.
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