Social Network Intervention to Engage Community PLH to Engage in HIV Medical Care

People living with HIV infection (PLH) are clustered in friendship groups with other HIV+ persons, and an intervention delivered to all members of PLH social networks allows HIV+ people who are friends in day-to-day life to provide one another with support for entering, remaining, and adhering to HIV medical care. Moreover, an intervention delivered to groups attended by HIV+ persons who are friends increases HIV medical care engagement and decreases problem drinking more than individual counseling, probably because the network intervention harnessed mutual peer social support among friends who share the same HIV status, face similar coping issues, and interact together in day-to-day life. The planned research will be conducted in two phases in St. Petersburg, Russia.