Exploring PrEP health promotion amongst London’s Black African community

‘Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis’ (PrEP) offers multiple advantages to users, with its individually-controlled uptake in singular daily pill form offering a surreptitious alternative to traditional HIV prevention measures, alongside being highly effective in blocking virus transmission. However, its promotion has largely neglected the Black African community as an at-risk group, generating resistance to PrEP uptake which is attributable to poor messaging in prior campaigns which negatively stigmatises them with HIV, causing subsequent dissociation from perceiving themselves as eligible PrEP candidates. The current study explored a literature-guided approach to designing an informational PrEP message series which manipulated content based on assigned psychosocial variables under the ‘Health Belief Model’. Participants (N = 30) were from London’s Black African community, rating messages on 5 measures of effectiveness in ‘Qualtrics’, with the aim being to locate the best and worst performing for each. Results implied bestperforming message content centred around PrEP uptake being empowering for users by giving them control in their sexual partnerships, particularly overcoming pressures of condom use and HIV transmission fears to unborn children. Poorly-performing messages touched upon affixed concepts like PrEP use being vital in areas of high geographical HIV risk, conspiracyrelated mistrust and side-effects from medicinal PrEP. Implications include offering major direction in tailoring future messaging, to resolve PrEP inequity amongst this underserved population

Raising NHS PrEP awareness among Black African communities in the city of Hackney

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a biomedical human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention strategy that involves the use of HIV antiretroviral medications by HIV-negative people to reduce infection risk. In spite of its potential, the uptake of PrEP both in the United Kingdom (UK) and worldwide has been limited, with disparities emerging across lines of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geography, age, and self-identity. Following men who have sex with men (MSM), the UK’s BA population currently faces the second-highest levels of HIV risk, yet awareness of PrEP within the community remains low and research on the subject is limited. The present study aimed to address this gap by asking how to raise awareness of PrEP within London’s BA community appropriately and effectively. To this end, a focus group was conducted featuring two members of the BA community, both working in the domain of sexual health. Seven questions focused on various aspects of raising PrEP awareness guided the discussion. Four main themes were identified: taboos and stigma; medical mistrust; local engagement; and the diversity of the BA community. The effects of stigma on healthcare workers’ ability to discuss PrEP were considered for the first time in a UK-based sample, as were the consequences of widespread medical mistrust. Key considerations pertaining to community engagement were contemplated, and participants discussed the importance of catering to numerous segments of the BA population. These results provide a first step towards increasing PrEP awareness within the BA community and ultimately remedying some of the HIV-related health inequalities experienced by this population

Specialized Regional Conferences Support the Professional Development of Subject Librarians: A 5-Year Analysis of the Great Lakes Science Boot Camps for Librarians

Conference attendance can play an important role in supporting the professional development of subject librarians by offering opportunities that allow librarians to learn about new services, strategies, and technologies while growing and maintaining professional networks. However, barriers such as accessibility challenges, budgetary and resource restrictions, difficulty measuring learning gains, and difficulty measuring the value of professional development when applied to the job can restrict opportunities for many librarians. Specialized regional conferences have the potential to reduce many of these barriers. How can librarians, library administrators and conference organizers quantify the value of regional conference attendance as an accessible means for fostering librarian professional development? This paper examines five years of assessment data and participant feedback from attendees of a specialized regional conference for STEM librarians, and measures participant learning and participant motivation for conference attendance. We propose specialized regional conferences, such as the Great Lakes Science Boot Camp for Librarians, as accessible and affordable continuing education opportunities that support the professional development of subject librarians

A DELPHI analysis of the actions that need to be taken to develop a trauma-informed network

BACKGROUND: The outcomes of a traumatic experience can be wide-reaching, such that individuals who have experienced trauma may be at an elevated risk for behavioural problems, mental health problems, and physical conditions. As such trauma experience may necessitate frequent interactions with the care system across the lifespan. In order to effectively meet the needs of this population multidisciplinary collaboration is required. However this collaboration is hindered by differences in definitions of ‘trauma-informed care’ between organisations, and a recent proliferation of independent trauma-informed training programs being developed without communication or collaboration with the clients at risk. The current study aimed to utilise a combination of existing literature and a DELPHI analysis to develop an actionable list of aims, partners, and outcomes for developing a ‘trauma-informed network’. Our research questions are: 1) What components are required when developing a trauma-informed network?, 2) Which components are most important to developing a traumainformed network?, and 3) What actions need to be taken in order to facilitate these factors? METHODS: Item refinement was processed through the DELPHI analysis in up to six iterations aimed at developing an unbiased consensus (defined here as 70% agreement)16. All data was collected online and anonymously. Participant experts (N=33) were defined as ‘people with lived experience of trauma, or experience working in the care sector’. RESULTS: A list of eight theories were identified as relevant to the development of a trauma-informed network, however no clear consensus was reached on the order of importance. Agreement was reached that 34 stakeholders should be involved in decision-making. Twelve actions were identified as key outcomes for a trauma-informed network. Consensus was also reached on the order of importance of these actions. CONCLUSIONS: We have provided a short-list of the most important aims, partners, and actions to consider when developing a trauma-informed network. We have also provided considerations on how these can be implemented, based on the comments and experiences shared by our expert participants during the DELPHI process. We recommend that these outputs are taken under consideration when directing the focus and development of a trauma-informed network

Secondary consent to biospecimen use in a prostate cancer biorepository

BACKGROUND: Biorepository research has substantial societal benefits. This is one of the few studies to focus on male willingness to allow future research use of biospecimens. METHODS: This study analyzed the future research consent questions from a prostate cancer biorepository study (N = 1931). The consent form asked two questions regarding use of samples in future studies (1) without and (2) with protected health information (PHI). Yes to both questions of use of samples was categorized as Yes-Always; Yes to without and No to with PHI was categorized as Yes-Conditional; No to without PHI was categorized as Never. We analyzed this outcome to determine significant predictors for consent to Yes-Always vs. Yes-Conditional. RESULTS: 99.33 % consented to future use of samples; 88.19 % consented to future use without PHI, and among those men 10.2 % consented to future use with PHI. Comparing Yes Always and Yes Conditional responses, bivariate analyses showed that race, family history, stage of cancer, and grade of cancer (Gleason), were significant at the α = 0.05 level. Using stepwise multivariable logistic regression, we found that African–American men were significantly more likely to respond Yes Always when compared to White men (p < 0.001). Those with a family history of prostate cancer were significantly more likely to respond Yes Always (p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: There is general willingness to consent to future use of specimens without PHI among men

Characterising the nicotine metabolite ratio and its association with treatment choice: A cross sectional analysis of Stop Smoking Services in England

Pharmacotherapy provision based on Nicotine Metabolite Ratio (NMR) status (slow/normal metabolism) may improve smoking cessation rates. However, it is unclear whether NMR status is consistent across patient characteristics and current treatment choice. Data come from 1,826 participants attending Stop Smoking Services (SSS) across England in 2012/13. Sociodemographic, mental/physical health, smoking and treatment characteristics (nicotine replacement therapy vs. other pharmacotherapy; group vs. one-to-one behavioural support) were assessed. Salivary nicotine metabolites were measured and NMR (3-hydroxycotinine/cotinine) computed, characterising smokers as slow (NMR < 0.31) or normal (NMR ≥ 0.31) metabolisers. Normal metabolisers were older than slow metabolisers (Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.49, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.32-1.69) but no other characteristics were associated with NMR status. Overall, predictors accounted for only 7.3% of NMR variance. In adjusted analysis, pharmacotherapy type was not associated with NMR status, but normal metabolisers were less likely to use group support (OR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.51-0.89). NMR status does not vary substantially across sociodemographic characteristics. Given its impact on pharmacotherapy efficacy, the lack of an association with pharmacotherapy choice suggests there is scope to use NMR status to optimise the selection and efficacy of smoking cessation pharmacotherapy. The unexpected association of NMR status with behavioural support should be explored further

Climate change threatens the most biodiverse regions of Mexico

International audienceClimate change threatens Earth's biodiversity, although its impacts are variable and depend on the capacity of species and ecosystems to cope with the magnitude and speed of change. Natural protected areas (NPAs) constitute potential refugia for species' persistence and for sustaining the provisioning of ecosystem services. Biosphere reserves are NPAs that are less altered by human actions and provide habitat to endemic, threatened or endangered species. Here, we aim to evaluate the threat imposed by climate change on the network of biosphere reserves in Mexico. Focusing on five bioclimatic variables, we computed the climatic space – measured as an n-dimensional hypervolume – of 40 NPAs. Increases in temperature are predicted for all NPAs by 2050, whereas decreases in annual rainfall are predicted for 30 NPAs. By 2050, 31 NPAs that provide habitat to 22,866 recorded species are predicted to lose 100% of their baseline climatic space, shifting to completely novel climates. On average, the other nine NPAs are predicted to lose 55.7% (SD = 26.7%) of their baseline climatic space, while 54.5% (SD = 32.5%) of the future climatic space will be novel. Seventeen NPAs may lose climate variability (homogenization), decreasing species' niches. The extent to which non-analogue conditions will remain within the tolerance of species and ecosystems is currently unknown. Finally, we propose a vulnerability index to categorise NPAs based on their loss of existing climatic space, total geographic area, species richness, and uniqueness of species composition, finding los Tuxtlas and Tiburon Ballena as the most and least vulnerable NPAs, respectively