The Institute for Community Research (ICR) announced that it has received a grant from the World AIDS Foundation, an international funding agency, for a HIV prevention research training program in Mumbai, India. The International Institute of Population Sciences (IIPS) in Mumbai and the Center for International Community Health Studies at the University of Connecticut in Farmington, CT will partner with ICR.

The one-year project entitled “Training and Pilot Research Related to the Prevention of HIV Infection in Migrant Youth in Mumbai,” is designed to increase the capacity of IIPS, a degree granting center for survey-based population and migration research to conduct qualitative research integrating drug use and HIV risk. ICR, University of Connecticut and Indian researchers with expertise in this area will train IIPS faculty, senior researchers and graduate students in qualitative research methods to study migrant networks, and social influences on drug use and HIV risk behaviors. As part of their training, they will conduct field research in three low income communities in Mumbai. The ultimate aim of the project is to develop an applied research program at IIPS that focuses on HIV related prevention research and reduces the spread of HIV among young adults in Mumbai and their urban and rural sexual partners.

“There has been a dramatic increase in the incidence of HIV infection in India, especially in urban areas, where rural migration has accelerated over the past decade,” said Jean J. Schensul, Executive Director of ICR and principal investigator in the study. “Recognition of the intersection of alcohol, non-injection drug use and sexual risk in India is relatively recent and has not been the focus of research efforts despite the recognition of the importance of these factors for HIV risk in the United States and other areas of the world.”

The project will use ethnographic and epidemiologic survey research to identify new trends in drug use, risk behavior and the sites and circumstances in which these factors combine to enhance risk of HIV exposure and transmission. Training workshops will take place in the United States and India. Research trainees will attend a series of lectures on topics such as adolescent development, drug use and sex risk behavior in South and Southeast Asia, and receive intensive training in qualitative research methods and data analysis. Visiting faculty from India will be
paired with researchers at ICR and the Center for International Community Health Studies to develop their pilot project proposals for work in targeted high-risk communities of Mumbai.

After the field research is completed in India, the research team will analyze the data and disseminate the results to HIV researchers, government officials and drug policy-makers. The remainder of the project will focus on integrating the training experiences into existing curricula at IIPS, developing new research courses, exploring culturally targeted interventions, and seeking funding sources for the expansion of HIV prevention projects with ICR and University of Connecticut partners.

“Since AIDS affects people on every continent, researchers and advocates now work together across national boundaries to develop strategies for preventing its spread,” said Schensul. “This project allows ICR researchers and AIDS and drug abuse preventionists to exchange research skills and experiences with counterparts in Asia and other high prevalence areas elsewhere in the world,” she added.