Urban Health Study II

The study has two research objectives: (1) to expand access and options for HIV testing with individuals in the criminal justice system, by focusing on high-risk intravenous drug users (IDUs) and crack cocaine smokers in community settings; and (2) to improve access and maintenance of highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) among HIV-positive persons in this population, by implementing a promising intervention focused on continuity of HIV care, and evaluating it using a rigorous experimental design.

HIV-positive persons will be identified through the testing activities described in Objective 1. They will then be offered enrollment in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of an intervention designed to engage and maintain HIV-positive people with criminal justice involvement in medical care. The intervention, Project Bridge, has shown great promise but has not yet been rigorously evaluated. The RCT will assess the efficacy of Project Bridge compared with a Usual Care arm. Our hypotheses are that, at quarterly data collection visits: (1) Intervention participants will have lower HIV viral load than usual care participants 2b: (2) Intervention participants will be more likely to be in HIV care than usual care participants (3) Intervention participants will be more likely to be on HAART than usual care participants.

The study design was changed from a randomized controlled trial to a quasi-experimental comparison group design. This change was approved by the NIMH Program Officer and the RTI IRB in June, 2012.