CDC Releases 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) Results

Press Release:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released today a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Surveillance Summary on the 2017 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). This report provides the most recent surveillance data on health behaviors and experiences among high school students across the country. This year, CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention used 2017 YRBS data to focus on four priority areas: sexual behavior, high-risk substance use, violence victimization, and mental health and suicide-related behaviors that contribute to substantial morbidity for adolescents, including the risk for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

While the 2017 YRBS results present a promising picture for some behaviors and experiences among high school students, other areas reveal concerning trends that continue to put young people at risk for HIV and STDs. For example:

  • The percentage of youth who have ever had sex decreased (48% in 2007 to 40% in 2017), as did the percentage of youth who reported having four or more sexual partners (15% in 2007 to 10% in 2017), reducing the risk for HIV and STDs.
  • Condom use among sexually active high school students decreased (62% in 2007 to 54% in 2017) putting more youth at risk for HIV and STDs.
  • Injection drug use and use of select illicit drugs declined (23% in 2007 to 14% in 2017); however, 14% of high school students (nearly 1 in 7) reported non-prescription use of opioids, which has been directly linked to increased risk for injection drug use and HIV.
  • Students who reported they were physically forced to have sex has not improved (8% in 2007 to 7% in 2017), with females reporting the highest rates (11% in 2007 and 2017) putting them at increased risk for HIV and STDs.
  • The percentage of youth who reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness increased (29% in 2007 to 32% in 2017), which may compound the risk for HIV and STDs.

While most high school students are making better decisions about their health, several subgroups of vulnerable youth are faced with unequal risk for HIV and STDs by experiencing unacceptable levels of violence, drug use, and mental health issues. The 2017 YRBS data highlight substantial health disparities among students based on sex, race/ethnicity, and sexual identity/same-sex sexual contact. These disparities are especially large among sexual minority youth.

Despite some improvements in many of the 2017 YRBS indicators, they are not enough to fully protect students from risks.Schools are central in improving health outcomes for students, but they cannot do it alone. Families and communities play a key role in making sure youth remain healthy now and into adulthood. Schools and families can have an impact on student health by supporting their connectedness with others, especially with their parents, peers, and other important adults. Adolescents are more likely to thrive if they know they matter and have adults, teachers, and friends who care about their safety and academic success.

For more information about the 2017 YRBS results, a new supplemental report on ten year trends, and additional YRBS tools and resources, please visit the YRBS website.

 

Feature Spotlight: Damilola Jolayemi, MSc

Damilola Jolayemi, MSc is the Program Coordinator for the Combination Prevention Core at UCLA CHIPTS. Her interest in HIV began while she was pursuing her Master of Science in Global Health at Northwestern University. Damilola, an American of Nigerian origin, was motivated to study global health because she was interested in addressing and alleviating the multiple burden of diseases, including HIV, in Africa. Her education and experience over the years made her aware that the disparities that exist in her native country were also present in US.

At the end of her master’s program, Damilola worked with OMNI Med, an organization in Uganda focused on improving health outcomes through community health education and workers’ training in the interior region of Central Uganda. As part of her practicum project, Damilola developed an HIV training curriculum for community health workers and community members, aimed at increasing their knowledge around HIV testing, identification, treatment and prevention.

During her one month in Uganda, Damilola also conducted focus groups with community health workers to understand and dispel myths and beliefs surrounding HIV. She also spent time at the local hospital’s ART clinic, HIV testing and counseling center, immunization center, maternity ward, and pharmacy to witness the medical care and experiences of people living with HIV.  Through this experience, she made strong connections with health providers and local HIV organizations that gave her insight into the challenges of healthcare access within the region. Given her observations, experience and intrinsic desire to improve health outcomes in resource poor settings, Damilola hopes to further her path in research and work towards a career in infectious diseases prevention.

As a new member of CHIPTS, Damilola is excited to learn more about HIV/AIDS, engage with community members, and plan programs within CHIPTS. Prior to joining CHIPTS, Damilola was an elementary school educator and taught computer science literacy. She loves traveling, hiking, painting landscapes and photography.

Each month, we’re featuring a member of our CHIPTS family and their work! To see past spotlights, check them out on the spotlights page  and make sure to check back to see who we feature next!

Guest Lecture: Getting to 2020: Top Challenges in Biobehavioral HIV Prevention

Dr. Chris Beyrer from Johns Hopkins University and Dr. Jane Simoni from the University of Washington gave a special guest lecture on June 1, 2018 at UCLA on the current top challenges in biobehavioral HIV prevention. You can watch a webinar of the recording below and on Youtube. 

Please click here for Dr. Beyrer’s slides: CHIPTS UCLA Getting to 2020: Top Challenges to Biomedical Prevention Talk - Slides

Please click here for Dr. Simoni’s slides: Dr. Jane Simoni - CHIPTS UCLA Getting to 2020: Top Challenges to Biomedical Prevention Talk - Slides

2018 CHIPTS Annual Strategic Planning Meeting

May 31, 2018 –CHIPTS held its annual retreat and strategic planning meeting on Thursday, May 31, 2018 in Los Angeles. The theme of the meeting was “Getting to 2020: Planning for the Future for Biobehavioral HIV Prevention.” The meeting was successful in bringing over 70 core faculty members, staff, scientific and community stakeholders to engage in a strategic planning process.

Center Director, Dr. Steven Shoptaw started the day

Dr. Steve Shoptaw, CHIPTS Director, led and moderated the day. The meeting began with opening remarks by Dr. Kelsey Martin, Dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine, and Dr. Patrick Dowling, Chair of UCLA Department of Family Medicine, which set the stage for a productive day of planning, networking, and exchanging ideas. In addition to our core faculty, staff, and trainees, the meeting was attended by members of the CHIPTS’ community and scientific advisory boards, who gave valuable feedback and guidance regarding the center’s scientific direction, community engagement, and dissemination efforts.

Dr. Sheldon Fields giving feedback to the presentation

Mr. Mario Perez, Director of the Los Angeles County Division on HIV and STD Programs (DHSP), presented on the local HIV/AIDS Strategy. Dr. Lynn Gordon, Senior Associate Dean of Diversity Affairs at UCLA also delivered an important presentation on the topic of workplace diversity and shared efforts that were being implemented within the David Geffen School of Medicine to address this topic. The meeting proved to be a productive day, filled with stimulating conversations that generated many new research ideas, collaborations, and action steps to advance CHIPTS’ overall mission.

You can download the agenda for the day here: CHIPTS Annual Strategic Planning Meeting (2018) - Agenda

Check out highlights from the day in our photo gallery posted on Facebook and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for more announcements!

 

Colloquium: “Project Rise”

May 10, 2018 – At this month’s Los Angeles County Commission on HIV meeting, Laura Bogart, PhD of RAND Corporation, Matt G. Mutchler, PhD, of California State University Dominguez Hills and APLA Health, and Sean J. Lawrence and Damone Thomas of APLA Health presented on the community-engaged process of developing and testing Project Rise, a client-centered and culturally congruent treatment adherence counseling program for Black/African-Americans living with HIV.  Their findings indicated that Rise had stronger effects on medication adherence than did prior HIV adherence intervention studies. In addition, the presenters described Rise 2.0, a new randomized controlled trial that is examining long-term effects of Rise on adherence and viral suppression.

The full presentation video is available and we’ve uploaded photos from the commission in our photo gallery and you can download the presentation slides below.

Project Rise: LA County Commission on HIV - Slides

CHIPTS hosts a monthly HIV Research and Community Colloquia Series in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Commission on HIV to highlight current issues and conversations surrounding HIV. Click here for past lectures and check out the events page for more information on future Colloquia presentations!

Feature Spotlight: Ronald Brooks, PhD

Ronald Brooks, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at UCLA and a core scientist in the Combination Prevention Core at CHIPTS.  He began working in the field of HIV as a part-time statistician at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center and was the first to examine the geographic distribution of HIV/AIDS cases among Latinos living in Los Angeles County in relation to available HIV/AIDS services within the County’s health districts.  After receiving his doctoral degree in Urban Planning, he accepted a research fellowship in the Department of Epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.  There he began his HIV research career examining cultural characteristics as predictors of HIV risk behaviors among Latino men with support from the UCLA Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and AIDS Institute.  As a bicultural Mexican-American gay man, Ron has continued to focus his research on HIV disparities affecting racial and ethnic sexual minority men.

Ron’s current research focuses on the use of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention among racial/ethnic gay and bisexual men and trans women.  He began his PrEP research with a small but important study examining the acceptability of PrEP among HIV discordant racial/ethnic gay male couples in Los Angeles.  Since then he has expanded his research to examine PrEP acceptability and barriers to uptake among Black men who have sex with men (MSM). His most recent study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, is looking at the experiences of PrEP-related stigma among Latino and Black MSM.  This study is entitled the LA PrEP Stories project and is examining how PrEP-related stigma may influence PrEP adoption, persistence, adherence, and the dissemination of PrEP information within the social networks of Black and Latino MSM.  With supplemental funding from the California Community Foundation, Ron has expanded his current project to include Latina and Black trans women.

For Ron, it is the real life experiences and stories of participants in his research projects that have continuously inspired him and fueled his commitment to helping to end the HIV epidemic in racial/ethnic minority communities. He enjoys working with community-based organizations and helping them build their capacity to implement and evaluate their HIV prevention and treatment programs and increase their impact on the community.

When he has break from work, Ron enjoys spending time with close friends in Palm Springs.  For him the tranquility of the desert allows him to re-energize himself for his work at UCLA.  His culinary talents include preparing hearty, traditional Mexican dishes.  He is also an avid viewer of HGTV’s House Hunters International and enjoys watching professional tennis.

Each month, we’re featuring a member of our CHIPTS family and their work! To see past spotlights, check them out on the spotlights page and make sure to check back to see who we feature next!

[HIGHLIGHTS] Stigma & HIV Event

May 4, 2018 – On Friday, members of the community from across Los Angeles County gathered for the Stigma and HIV event at St. Anne’s in downtown Los Angeles. The day started energetically with the keynote presentation by Dr. Andrew Spieldenner, Chair of the US People Living with HIV Caucus, who delved into the definition of stigma, its different forms, and the stigma index. After the keynote presentation, Mr. Tim Vincent gave an engaging, interactive presentation on how stigma is manifested in different settings and described ways in which stigma can be addressed at the client, provider, community, and policy level. Dr. Laura Bogart, a Senior Behavioral Scientist at RAND Corporation and a Core Scientist at CHIPTS, wrapped up the day with a presentation on her current research which aims to create a new intervention that takes into account stigma surrounding HIV care, medical mistrust, and structural barriers to accessing and staying in care, specifically among HIV-positive Black and Latino sexual minority men.

Special thanks to the City of Los Angeles AIDS Coordinator’s Office, the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the East Los Angeles Women’s Center, Los Angeles County Commission on HIV, Los Angeles Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Next-Level Consulting, Los Angeles Region Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center, and CHIPTS for hosting this successful event.

You can find all of the presentations in the download links below. We also created a short highlight reel of the day to recap the amazing discussions and presentations of the day and the photo gallery on our Facebook page!

Stigma and HIV: It Leaves a Mark - Slides
Responding to the Complex Characteristics of STIGMA - Slides
An Intervention to Enhance Coping with Discrimination among HIV-Positive Black and Latino Sexual Minority Men - Slides

HIV and Depression: A Potential Role for Attention Training in Prevention and Treatment

This study, led by CHIPTS Core Affiliate, Eric Houston, PhD, and included Center Director, Steve Shoptaw, PhD, was published in SciForschen Journal of HIV and AIDS online on March 27th, 2018 titled, “HIV and Depression: A Potential Role for Attention Training in Prevention and Treatment.”

The following excerpt is from the full publication which is available for download here: [Download not found]

Abstract: Much research indicates a strong relationship between depressive symptoms and poor health behaviors, including those key to HIV infection and unfavorable treatment outcomes. Given the role of attention bias for negative stimuli in the development and maintenance of depressive symptoms, attention bias modification (ABM) training has gained growing support as a promising clinical approach. ABM is a computerized treatment designed to induce changes in mood and behavior by retraining an individual’s attentional focus. Using explicit instructions and trial-by-trial feedback, this preliminary study explored the potential utility of a single session of ABM training in addressing depressive symptoms among individuals at heightened vulnerability for poor HIV-related health behaviors. The sample, recruited from a clinic that provides services to residents of a Los Angeles community impacted by high HIV infection rates, consisted of 14 African American men who have sex with men (MSM). Participants exhibited a significant reduction in attention bias for negative emotional stimuli following a single session of attention training. Engagement with negative stimuli was lower after training than before training regardless of trial type. This study suggests that brief attention training sessions using novel procedures designed to enhance the learning experience of participants could be employed to address depressive symptoms among individuals at risk for poor HIV-related health behaviors. Future studies should employ these procedures as part of multisession attention trainings with repeated measures of attention bias and depressive symptoms.

Feature Spotlight: Nina Harawa, PhD, MPH

Dr. Nina Harawa co-directs the Policy Impact Core at CHIPTS.  She is an Associate Professor-in-Residence with the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a Professor with Charles R. Drew University (CDU) of Medicine and Science, where she leads CDU’s HIV Cluster.  She also co-directs the National Coordinating Center for the NIA-funded Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) at UCLA.

Trained in epidemiology, Dr. Harawa’s research involves understanding trends in HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and developing effective, culturally relevant interventions for prevention, care, and treatment.  She has conducted innovative research with a wide variety of populations including those marginalized due to their status as racial and/or sexual and gender minorities.  Much of this work has involved partnering with local governmental and community organizations in order to address health issues in populations that experience major health disparities.  She currently co-leads two multi-site research studies funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse.  One examines the impacts of incarceration and related interventions and policies on HIV in Black men who have sex with men (MSM).  The other will test an intervention to promote linkage to and retention in HIV care for young MSM following release from jail.

Most recently, Dr. Harawa was awarded a competitive One Step Ahead award from the California HIV/AIDS Research Program for her innovative proposal to test a new intervention to engage at-risk MSM and transgender women in pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), HIV/STI/Hepatitis C testing, and social services following release from jail.  Their Mobile Enhanced Prevention Support (MEPS) intervention for people leaving jail combines a new mobile app with incentives and peer navigation to encourage prevention during and following reentry.

She enjoys jazz, visual arts, poetry, and yoga.  Thanks to her husband, who is the Editor of The Ring magazine, she knows more about boxing than you would ever expect of an epidemiologist.

Each month, we’re featuring a member of our CHIPTS family and their work! To see past spotlights, check them out on the spotlights page  and make sure to check back to see who we feature next!

Methods Seminar – Michael Shin, PhD on Mapping Health

Michael Shin, PhD
Associate Professor, UCLA Department of Geography,
Geospatial @ UCLA

Tuesday, April 10, 2pm – 3pm

Center for Community Health, UCLA Wilshire Center
10920 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 350, Room 350-46 (Conference Room)

Health happens. What’s more is that health happens somewhere. Our understanding of how geography can define, shape, influence and inform health outcomes, policies, and interventions remains largely underdeveloped. This seminar provides an overview of how geospatial concepts, methods and approaches can complement and extend our understanding of health. Three brief analytical vignettes are presented to encourage and to stimulate further discussion on the potential of incorporating geospatial approaches into healthcare research, policies and interventions. First, variations in Medicare spending are situated and explored within a geographic framework. Second, the association between obesity and voting, and their respective and coincident geographies, are reviewed. Finally, results from a field experiment designed to increase civic engagement across Los Angeles are discussed in relation to making Angelenos healthier.

The CHIPTS’ Methods Core hosts a monthly seminar series, which are one-hour workshops on research and statistical methods.  The seminars are open to HIV researchers, faculty, students, and community. To see previous seminars, check out the Methods Seminar tag or you can find seminar videos on our Youtube Channel! This series is hosted by the Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services (CHIPTS) and made possible by funds from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH058107).