African-born Black women living in the US experience markedly higher rates of HIV diagnosis than their US-born counterparts, with condom use and PrEP remaining underutilized despite their effectiveness. Existing HIV prevention interventions for African-born Black women are limited in scope; some lack cultural tailoring, linguistic appropriateness, and most not do include PrEP. Using the ADAPT-ITT model, we culturally adapted two evidence-based interventions for US Black women–Sister-to-Sister and Sisters Informing Sisters about Topics on AIDS (SISTA)–to increase condom use and PrEP uptake among African-born Black women through community stakeholder input. DADA, which was adapted from SISTA, consists of two 3-hour peer-led, group-level intervention and Dada kwa Dada (DKD), adapted from Sister-to-Sister, is a 1-hour individual-level intervention. To test feasibility and acceptability, 29 African-born women without HIV were recruited from social media groups and community partner listservs in Massachusetts and New York; 17 were randomized to DKD and 12 to DADA. Participants completed risk assessments at baseline and provided post-intervention feedback interviews and surveys. Both adapted interventions demonstrated high feasibility and acceptability, with participants expressing positive qualitative and quantitative feedback regarding their culturally appropriateness, and relevance.This study addresses critical gaps in tailored HIV prevention approaches for African-born Black women and paves the way for future trials to improve condom use and PrEP in this population. Next steps are to conduct a fully-powered comparative effectiveness trial to assess the relative impact of both interventions on increased condom use and uptake of PrEP.

Treatment advances over the past decade offer new medications and procedures to combat the growing problem of childhood obesity. In a new brief, nonresident fellow Dr. Sheela Gavvala and coauthors provide policy options and recommendations to encourage evolution in the state’s approach to this important health issue, ensuring a healthier and more prosperous future for all Texans.

Federal mandates have affected nearly all areas of dialysis care delivery. Nonresident scholar Kevin F. Erickson and Wolfgang C. Winkelmayer evaluate the evidence behind two prior federal mandates to assess how the quality of evidence supporting each policy contributed to its overall success.

This report examines the societal and economic benefits of investing in children’s early brain development. It also assesses public child care, preschool, home-visiting and parenting education programs in Texas and makes recommendations for possible reforms.

Increasingly, stakeholders from diverse sectors acknowledge there is a window of opportunity early in life in which the brain is particularly susceptible to effective interventions with measurable long-term benefits. The authors undertook this paper with the principal purpose of setting priorities for investment in early childhood brain development.