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Marketing HIV/AIDS prevention: challenges to implementation and sustainability

University of British Columbia

In North America, statistics indicate an increasing incidence of HIV in youth and young adults. As there is still no cure, disease prevention remains the only option, emphasising the on-going need for effective HIV/AIDS prevention programs and policy. Social marketing offers one approach to influence individuals to protect themselves and others from HIV. Social marketing applies commercial marketing techniques to promote social causes, ideas, and practices with the ultimate objective to voluntarily change human behaviour. The success of social marketing to effect social behaviour change has inspired its application to HIV/AIDS prevention. This thesis seeks to broaden and deepen the understanding of social marketing and its application to HIV/AIDS prevention. The research is two-fold, the first comprises an analysis of the social marketing approach and the second examines the approach in practice. To evaluate social marketing's practical application to HIV/AIDS prevention two case studies are examined, Condomania in Vancouver, B.C. and Project Action in Portland, Oregon. The study aims to identify 1) the impact of the specific social marketing strategies on the target population; 2) common challenges in the implementation process and; 3) barriers to sustaining AIDS prevention programs over the long-term. Using interviews and evaluation studies, the above questions were addressed. The findings indicate positive impacts on behaviours and attitudes regarding condom use, at least in the short-term in Project Action and among females in Condomania. However, no direct cause-effect correlation is possible of the interventions and behaviour change. The case study analysis did highlight impact enhancing attributes that include incorporating a peer-to-peer workshop, continuous and repetitive programming, and emphasising a message to challenge sexual norms among main and long-term partners. With respect to implementation both HIV/AIDS prevention programs faced the following challenges: program opposition from conservative groups, community apprehension, difficulty in reaching ethnic communities, obtaining and collecting representative data, and limited funding. Lesson learned from the analysis include: 1) the importance of community mobilisation to foster support and diffuse opposition; 2) the significance of target population involvement in message design, content, and distribution; and 3) the need for detailed attention to monitoring and evaluation to obtain representative and relevant data necessary in the program implementation process.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-05-23

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/8082

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University of British Columbia

UBCV

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