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mHealth for ART adherence by HIV+ African Americans age 45 & older

Award Number: R44MD007161
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CENTER ON MINORITY HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/18/2012
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 05/31/2020

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mHealth for ART adherence by HIV+ African Americans age 45 & older - DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Environment and Health Group (EHG), Inc., in collaboration with a number of Boston MA and Columbia SC based organizations, seeks to enhance, test, and commercialize an individually-tailored, culturally-sensitive, positive-psychology and behavioral-economics based, mobile health intervention to promote ART adherence, increase ART self-efficacy and reduce feelings of stress burden among HIV positive African Americans age 45 and older. African Americans represent a growing portion (41%) of people living with HIV (CDC, 2012; 2014); by 2015, those age 50+ will account for half of all cases of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. (NIDA, 2012). Poor ART adherence contributes to disparities in HIV/AIDS outcomes among older African Americans. The proposed project is based on EHG's previous research with HIV+, age 50 years and older, African American adults. That research revealed personalized pill reminder text messages with positive-psychology based motivational and educational messages are effective at addressing two major barriers to ART adherence in this group: 1) memory deficits resulting from the combined effects of HIV, cognitive aging, and increased allostatic load, and 2) low motivation due to lack of ART self efficacy and negative affect. Findings showed significant improvement in ART adherence scores and marginally significant improvement in ART self- efficacy scores. While affect scores did not change, qualitative findings showed the intervention helped reduce feelings of stress burden. Supporting ART adherence is key to reducing health disparities among HIV+ African Americans. Doing so for those, age 45 and older-who are most vulnerable to cumulative, age-accelerating effects of HIV infection and allostatic load-is urgent, which is why we are lowering the age cut-off from 50 to 45 in Phase II. To date, no ART adherence support intervention has been developed for this highly-vulnerable group. The Phase II project will enhance the existing mobile intervention by offering: 1) a two-way communication capability through which participants can: i) indicate "pill taken" in response to pill reminders, and ii) receive a positive visual icon as behavioral-economics based reinforcement for "pill taken" responses; 2) live, real-time pharmacist counseling and medication support; and, 3) the addition of opt-in smoking cessation educational and motivational texts. Overall aims are to: 1) expand mhealth intervention to incorporate new Phase II features; 2) evaluate effectiveness in an RCT of HIV+ African Americans age 45 and older; and 3) prepare marketing and commercialization plans. Our long-term goal is to increase ART adherence, thus decreasing health disparities, among HIV+, African-Americans, age 45+.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2020	2018	ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH GROUP, INC.	705 CAMBRIDGE STREET	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02141	MIDDLESEX	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	000	5	9/25/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2019	2018	ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH GROUP, INC.	1280 MASSACHUSETTS AVE STE 203	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02138	MIDDLESEX	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	000	5	5/15/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2018 ( Subtotal = $159,955 )
2018	2018	ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH GROUP, INC.	1280 MASSACHUSETTS AVE STE 203	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02138	MIDDLESEX	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	001	5	6/22/2018	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$15,997
2018	2018	ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH GROUP, INC.	1280 MASSACHUSETTS AVE SUITE#203	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02138	MIDDLESEX	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	000	5	11/30/2017	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$143,958
														Subtotal = $159,955

Issue Date FY: 2017 ( Subtotal = $394,913 )
2017	2017	ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH GROUP, INC.	1280 MASSACHUSETTS AVE SUITE#203	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02138	MIDDLESEX	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	000	4	11/14/2016	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$355,421
2017	2017	ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH GROUP, INC.	1280 MASSACHUSETTS AVE SUITE#203	CAMBRIDGE	MA	02138	MIDDLESEX	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	001	4	6/28/2017	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$39,492
														Subtotal = $394,913

Issue Date FY: 2016 ( Subtotal = $397,891 )
2016	2016	ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH GROUP, INC	77 SHATTUCK ROAD	WATERTOWN	MA	02472	MIDDLESEX	USA	Minority Health and Health Disparities Research	000	3	2/26/2016	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$397,891
														Subtotal = $397,891

Grand Total All Awards = $952,759

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mHealth for ART adherence by HIV+ African Americans age 45 & older

Award Number: R44MD007161

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CENTER ON MINORITY HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/18/2012

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 05/31/2020

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