A Latent Growth Model Evaluation of the Comprehensive, Integrated HIV Prevention Program Effect on Excessive Alcohol Risk Awareness and Excessive Alcohol Consumption Risk

Aim: Since the early 1980s, excessive consumption among minority young adults (age 18-24 years old) became a severe public health concern in preventing the prevalence of HIV infection. In the United States, minority young adult population have a higher excessive alcohol consumption rate of HIV infection disproportionately infected with the disease than any other racial group. The continued spread of HIV among this vulnerable population has led to a need to identify risk and protective factors and evidence-based prevention strategies to reduce the transmission of the disease. A popular approach is the comprehensive, integrated HIV prevention program (CIHPP), a program based on the ecological epistemology framework. This framework views risk factors as a multilevel concentric system, including the individual, family, community, and societal levels. The theory asserts that any meaningful prevention strategy should examine the effect of these different levels on the population of interest. This study aims at testing the effectiveness of the CIHPP in raising awareness and excessive alcohol consumption risk of minority young adults.

Methods: Data on excessive alcohol risk awareness and alcohol consumption was collected from a survey of a random sample of minority young adults who participated in 24 months of CIHPP. Change in their excessive alcohol risk awareness and use was recorded during the 24 months of their participation in CIHPP. The impact of the CIHPP on excessive alcohol risk awareness and alcohol consumption were evaluated using the latent growth curve model within the framework of the structural equation modeling procedure.

Results: The findings reveal that the CHIPP was effective in raising the excessive alcohol consumption risk awareness and reducing alcohol consumption of the participants. There was a significant inter-individual difference in the original score of excessive alcohol risk awareness between the participants and progressed through 24 months of CIHPP intervention. Regression analysis revealed that excessive alcohol consumption risk awareness of female participants was higher than their male counterparts. There were significant inter-individual differences or heterogeneity in alcohol consumption in the original score of excessive alcohol consumption between the participants. Regression analysis revealed that the male participants consumed more alcohol than their female counterparts.

Conclusion and Discussion: The CIHPP was effective in increasing the awareness of excessive alcohol consumption risk and reducing excessive alcohol consumption among minority young adults. The alcohol awareness of minority young female adults was higher than their male counterparts during the 24 months implementation of the CIHPP. These findings confirmed our research hypotheses and consistent with the results of previous research on evidence-based interventions.

Keywords: Alcohol consumption risk awareness; Excessive alcohol consumption risk; Latent growth curve modeling; Structural equation modeling; Comprehensive HIV prevention program