Boston Arm of Multi-City Study to Focus on Sexual Health, HIV Risk Among Black Gay, Bisexual Men

Boston-based Fenway Health and the Multicultural AIDS Coalition "have launched the recruitment phase of a new study aimed at learning more about the sexual health of black gay and bi[sexual] men and finding effective strategies for HIV prevention within the black gay community," Bay Windows reports. The study, called Project Saving Ourselves (SOS), is seeking to recruit up to 400 participants in Boston, and also is collecting data on black gay and bisexual men in New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Ben Perkins, Project SOS director at the Fenway Institute of Fenway Health's research division, said, "This is pretty new. In terms of the scale, there hasn't been anything quite like it." Perkins said there are several questions researchers hope to answer about black gay and bisexual male health and HIV prevention, but the goal is to determine what factors put them at risk for HIV and help promote better health and safe behavior (Jacobs, 7/15).

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