A Cal State Long Beach professor was recognized by the government agency, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for critical research in HIV prevention programs.
Kevin Malotte, director of the CSULB Center for Health Care Innovation, served as the principle investigator in the Long Beach area for “Safe in the City” an HIV/AIDS intervention program.
The program has been chosen to be included in “The 2008 Compendium of Evidence-based HIV Prevention Interventions,” an annual book created by the CDC. It includes programs that are scientifically proven to reduce HIV/AIDS-related risk behavior and promote safer-sex practices.
“Safe in the City” is a 23-minute video that will be shown to patients in the waiting rooms of health clinics across America. It includes a collection of skits that demonstrate how to talk about safe-sex practices with a partner. The scenes show an ethnically diverse group of young couples with varying sexual orientations. There are also animated segments of the video that show how to use condoms correctly and the different types that are available.
A study was done at health clinics in Long Beach, Denver and San Francisco between 2003 and 2005. The results showed a decrease in new STDs that were diagnosed for patients who viewed the “Safe in the City” video in comparison to patients who did not see the video.
“During our evaluation study, the ‘Safe in the City’ intervention did demonstrate about a 9 percent reduction in new infections, and that is a significant amount since this is a relatively easily implemented intervention,” Malotte said.
“Safe in the City” is one of eight programs chosen to be included in “The Compendium” this year.
According to Malotte, it has already been requested at more than 1,200 websites, so it is the most widely distributed of the eight.
Malotte has been a researcher for 16 years and has been involved with many projects with the CDC.
He said the CDC comes to Long Beach for researchers because they know Long Beach can get the job done. He proudly pointed out that of the 57 intervention programs in “The Compendium,” Long Beach has been involved in five of them as researchers.
“This speaks to the history of Cal State Long Beach researchers and their involvements in this important public health area,” Malotte said. “I don’t believe any other university in the United States has been involved in as many interventions that have been chosen for this ‘Compendium’ publication.”
Malotte’s newest project is an intervention program targeting young Latinas. He just submitted a proposal to the National Institute of Health for funding and he is waiting for a response.
Malotte is also an endowed chair for the Archstone Foundation, a philanthropic, private organization primarily involved in addressing the issues of older Americans.
The “Safe in the City” video can be viewed in health clinics across the U.S. and also at www.safeinthecity.org.