Triangle Initiative at CCNMTL

E-WORTH

Partner(s): Louisa Gilbert, Nabila El-Bassel
Social Intervention Group (SIG), School of Social Work

Released: TBA
In development.

E-WORTH (Empowering African-American Women on the Road To Health) is a combination self-paced and group-based HIV prevention intervention for African American women on probation. The goal of the intervention is to build positive peer norms and social support for HIV risk reduction. E-WORTH is a collaboration between the Social Intervention Group (SIG) and CCNMTL. It builds on CCNMTL and SIG's previous intervention projects to provide a suite of self-paced computer-supported activities for participants, and to include a narrative and cast of video characters who help lead participants through the intervention exercises.

E-WORTH is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and is part of a 4-year study to test the efficacy of computer-supported versus traditional paper-based intervention models.

Project Details

E-WORTH builds on a previous SIG and CCNMTL collaboration Multimedia WORTH (Women On the Road To Health), which in turn was built on the original WORTH intervention. The WORTH intervention was developed by researchers at SIG as a group-based, integrated drug use and HIV prevention intervention for low income, urban female offenders and addressed intimate partner violence and other gender specific risk factors for HIV. WORTH was tested and found to be efficacious in a variety of environments.

Multimedia WORTH employed web-based interactive tools and culturally tailored video and interactive elements to enhance the delivery of the original WORTH intervention. It increased individual learning opportunities and feedback through the use of private computers for each participant, and strengthened the group format through interactive group activities on the facilitator's presentation screen. The system’s interface functioned as a road map, prompting facilitators to move sequentially through each activity without the need to rely on notes, memory, or previous experience

E-WORTH is now being adapted to function in a primarily self-paced context for African American women in response to the need for cost-effective, flexible options for HIV prevention interventions, and interventions that are tailored to specific populations. The study of E-WORTH is currently underway and will advance the science and extend the boundaries of multimedia HIV/STI prevention research by testing its efficacy with in a probation context. If E-WORTH is found to be efficacious, its self-paced format provide speed, quality, and scaleability in a range of overburdened criminal justice settings.