Moon and Sun Brothers: A Community Prevention Intervention (Hermanos de Luna y Sol)

March 20, 2026 updated by: San Francisco State University

The goal of this quasi-experimental, community intervention is to reduce HIV sexual risk among Latino immigrant bisexual men or men who have sex with men. The main questions the study aims to answer are:

Does the intervention improve sexual risk behaviors? Does the intervention increase self-esteem and social support? Are self-esteem and social support mediators in the link between the intervention and sexual risk? Researchers will compare information from the intervention versus control participants to answer the above questions.

Participants in the intervention arm will take part in:

  • One day-long (8-hour) group retreat.
  • Weekly discussion groups.
  • Community events and civic engagement activities.
  • Prevention counseling. Participants in the control arm will not be part of any activity.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

360

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

  • Name: Emma V Sanchez-Vaznaugh, ScD
  • Phone Number: 415-405-2832
  • Email: emmav@sfsu.edu

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United States
    • California
      • San Francisco, California, United States, 94132
        • Recruiting
        • San Francisco State University
        • Contact:
          • Emma V Sanchez-Vaznaugh, ScD
          • Phone Number: 415-405-2832
          • Email: emmav@sfsu.edu
        • Contact:
        • Sub-Investigator:
          • Rita Melendez, PhD
    • Illinois
      • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60607
        • Recruiting
        • Chicago Queer Latine Collaborative
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Identify as male.
  • Latino/x/e
  • Report having sex with men only, or both men and women in the last 12 months.
  • Speaks, reads/writes in Spanish.
  • ≥18 years of age.
  • Has access to a computer, laptop, tablet or smart phone device.
  • Be willing to participate in the study.
  • Be able to provide informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Populations younger than 18 years.
  • Individuals who have participated in an Hermanos de Luna y Sol program in either the intervention or control group locations.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Intervention Community
Over the course of twelve months, study participants will participate in: 1) One day-long (8-hour) group retreat (dosage: 100%); 2) Weekly discussion groups (dosage: minimum of 50% of weekly sessions); 3) Community participation (dosage: minimum of 5 civic engagement activities; 50% of community events); and 4) Prevention counseling sessions (dosage: minimum of 1 session). Intervention participants will take part in all four components.
Behavioral: Moon and Sun Brothers: A Community Prevention Intervention
The is a community-based, group intervention delivered in Spanish, using a quasi-experimental design, to reduce HIV sexual risk among Hispanic immigrants who identify as gay/bisexual men or men who have sex with men (GBMSM).
No Intervention: Control Community
Participants in the control arm will be unexposed to the intervention components.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Self-reported condomless anal intercourse
Time Frame: From baseline to end the of intervention, at twelve months.
From baseline to end the of intervention, at twelve months.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Self-Esteem
Time Frame: From enrollment to the end of intervention at 12 months
We will assess self-esteem using the 20-item Inner Strength Scale adapted for this study with response options and corresponding scores as follows: never (0), rarely (1), sometimes (2), often (4) and very often (4). The scores ranged from 0 to 80 with higher scores denoting higher degrees of inner strength.
From enrollment to the end of intervention at 12 months
Social Support
Time Frame: From enrollment to the end of intervention, at 12 months.
We will assess social support using a 20-item questionnaire developed by Krause, measuring social embeddedness (contact with friends and family) and enacted support from others (which entail emotional, tangible and informational support). These items are scored (coding in parentheses) based on the following responses: never (0), rarely (1), sometimes (2), often (3) and very often (4). The scores range from 0-80, with higher scores denoting a higher degree of social support.
From enrollment to the end of intervention, at 12 months.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

San Francisco State University

Collaborators

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Drexel University
Chicago Queer Latine Collaborative

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 13, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

March 31, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

March 31, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 5, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 11, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

March 16, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 25, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 20, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2025-123

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

De-identified Individual participant data collected as part of this intervention.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

The IPD and supporting information will be available after all specific analyses have been completed (on or about 7/31/2029), and available 36 months thereafter.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Researchers engaged in independent scientific research may request access to the IPD by submitting a research proposal and a statistical analysis plan. After review and approval of the proposal, a signed data sharing agreement is required before the data can be accessed.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP
  • ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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