Addressing Health Disparities among Transgender Women

University Of California, San Francisco, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Rachel L. Kaplan, PhD, MPH is a public health researcher at the Center for Research and Education on Gender and Sexuality at San Francisco State University and a postdoctoral scholar at University of California, Berkeley's Mack Center on Mental Health and Social Conflict. Dr. Kaplan's long-term career objective is to become an independent researcher specializing in the development and implementation of sexual and mental health promoting interventions among sexual minority populations in international settings. The proposed training, mentorship, and research plan support this goal and will provide her with the theoretical and practical skills necessary to become an independent intervention researcher. Although transgender women are among the most-at-risk populations for contracting HIV, few studies have been conducted to determine the most feasible and acceptable ways to impact risk. Further, knowledge of sexual and mental health among transgender women has been derived mostly from the United States. There is an urgent need for culturally relevant interventions for this marginalized population in poorly-resourced, high-stigma settings. The proposed study will address these gaps by: (1) exploring the psycho-social and cultural factors that form the context in which transgender women's sexual and mental health are situated; (2) determining how to impact transgender women's sexual and mental health through adaptation of a prevention intervention; and (3) assessing the feasibility and accessibility of the prevention intervention through pilot testing among transgender women in Lebanon. It is expected that this research will reveal prevention needs and strategies specific to transgender women in the Middle East and provide unique and powerful results to inform efficacy testing in future larger- scale trials in international settings.