Paula Frew and Laura Randall (both Environmental and Occupational Health) were recently published in AIDS Education and Prevention for research conducted with other researchers. The research focused on Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino men who have sex with men living with HIV and their habits related to HIV antiretroviral treatment (ART). The research team found that more than half of the men involved in the research reported following their doctor's instructions, but just over a fourth of them reported consistently taking ART. Some men delayed ART until after overcoming diagnosis denial or becoming very sick. Use of ART was facilitated by encouragement from others, treatment plans, side effect management, lab test improvements, pill-taking reminders, and convenient care facilities that provide "one-stop shop" services.  

Additionally, Frew and Randall, along with researchers from Emory University, recently published an article in Vaccine. The article focuses on developing a vaccine confidence index (VCI) that is capable of detecting variations in parental confidence towards childhood immunizations centered on trust and concern issues that impact vaccine confidence. The study included nearly 900 parents of children and assessing measures created for the Emory VCI (EVCI). The researchers found that EVCI scores were significantly different between parents who indicated their child(ren) received routinely recommended vaccines compared with parents who indicated they had delayed or declined recommended immunizations. There was also significant, consistent association between higher EVCI scores and greater reported vaccine receipt. Researchers found that the EVCI may be a useful tool for future monitoring of both population and individual confidence in childhood immunization.