Keep It Up

Keep It Up is a community health screening and HIV prevention program targeted to young Black men. The African American community is disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, emphasizing the importance of young Black men as an intervention group. Keep It Up uses social marketing and general health screening intervention to standardize a health checkup for men and confront barriers to care. The program was developed through community-based participatory research in which a team of researchers, nursing faculty, and creative artists collaborated with community experts and members of the target audience to create the core components of the intervention: social marketing, biological screening, computerized learning module, and a health profile and personalized risk-reduction plan.

Social marketing materials included video promotional spots by a recognizable spokesperson, and flyers, posters, t-shirts, and condoms to recruit participants. Biological Screening for HIV and other common health conditions placed a priority on noninvasive testing that provides rapid results and can be conducted in nonclinical settings. While waiting for test results participants used a computerized learning module that included videos and interactive materials to increase knowledge of preventative screening ad support safe sex. The health profile and personalized risk reduction plan are based on a brief family and personal medical history, risk behaviors and test results.

The goal of Keep It Up is to provide health screening and preventative care to Black men to promote HIV prevention and other health problems.

A pilot test of 116 young Black men showed that social marketing materials were successful in reaching the target audience: 74% had seen Keep It Up flyers or posters, a third had seen t-shirts on others, and 16% had seen the condoms. Participants appreciated the brief, free, rapid-result health screening. Almost all (96%) participants agreed that the module showed realistic ways for men to protect their sexual health and 95% found it to be interesting and entertaining. These results show that the Keep It Up model of integrating HIV prevention with other health screening successfully reached and was accepted by the target audience of young Black men.