Disparities in Community Readiness for HIV/AIDS prevention

HIV and AIDS as a community(1) issue have not been dealt with extensively in the literature. One model that offers promise for development of effective prevention and intervention efforts is the Community Readiness Model, a nine-stage model that assesses the level of readiness of a community to develop and implement prevention programming. Data are presented from a Community Readiness assessment of 30 rural U.S. communities: 10 African American, 10 Mexican American, and 10 White non-Mexican American. Four to five key respondent interviews were conducted via telephone in each community using the Community Readiness Assessment protocol during 1999-2000. Limitations of the study and implications for prevention are discussed. This study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.