News Finding: Third, with the existence of these strengths-based interventions, social services providers can develop a program of services that support black gay and bisexual men's HIV-negativity maintenance.
Paper Finding: Although the development of an adaptive strategies questionnaire to determine the extent of engagement in adaptive strategies and the relationship of adaptive strategies to remaining HIV negative over time was the end-goal of our study, we also see applicability of our qualitative findings to the development of a risk reduction intervention.
News Context: He adds: "Second, strengths-based research will in turn inform evidence-based interventions that can support what black gay and bisexual men are doing 'right' by maintaining seronegativity, even if they are not practicing safer sex all the time. Third, with the existence of these strengths-based interventions, social services providers can develop a program of services that support black gay and bisexual men's HIV-negativity maintenance. These services can range from psychoeducational groups to support groups to social groups that explicitly and intentionally promote their efforts to maintain HIV negativity."
Paper Context: Uncovering the more subtle strategies and motivations is the first step in the positive deviance approach and was done in this study by engaging men in in-depth discussions not only of known strategies for avoiding HIV, but of how they manage to sustain behaviors that are generally challenging for most men to sustain over time, and of behaviors that may not at face value seem protective, but when taken together could serve to lower exposure to risk. Although the development of an adaptive strategies questionnaire to determine the extent of engagement in adaptive strategies and the relationship of adaptive strategies to remaining HIV negative over time was the end-goal of our study, we also see applicability of our qualitative findings to the development of a risk reduction intervention. A tailored intervention based on these, when combined with known strategies such as condom use and PrEP, could serve to lower HIV risk.