title: Iterative evaluation in a mobile counseling and testing program to reach people of color at risk for HIV--new strategies improve program acceptability, effectiveness, and evaluation capabilities.
abstract: This article highlights findings from an evaluation that explored the impact of mobile versus clinic-based testing, rapid versus central-lab based testing, incentives for testing, and the use of a computer counseling program to guide counseling and automate evaluation in a mobile program reaching people of color at risk for HIV. The program's results show that an increased focus on mobile outreach using rapid testing, incentives and health information technology tools may improve program acceptability, quality, productivity and timeliness of reports. This article describes program design decisions based on continuous quality assessment efforts. It also examines the impact of the Computer Assessment and Risk Reduction Education computer tool on HIV testing rates, staff perception of counseling quality, program productivity, and on the timeliness of evaluation reports. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for programmatic responses to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's HIV testing recommendations.
authors.affiliation: RTI International, 114 Sansome Street, San Francisco, CA 94104, USA. fspielberg@rti.org
authors.forename: Freya
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Spielberg
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kurth
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Reidy
authors.forename: Teka
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: McKnight
authors.forename: Wame
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dikobe
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003376:Counseling; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008952:Mobile Health Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D016730:Program Development; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014861:Washington; D055815:Young Adult