For the common good : measuring residents' efforts to protect their community from drug- and sex-related harm

• Published in: SAHARA J : journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research Alliance 2008-09, Vol.5 (3), p.144-157
• Main Authors: Mateu-Gelabert, Pedro, Friedman, Samuel R., Flom, Peter L., Sandoval, Milagros, Maslow, Carey, Bolyard, Melissa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Community actions; Drug prevention; Efforts communautaires; Harm reduction; Intravention; Prevention de drogues; Protecting others; Proteger les autres; Reduction du mal
• ISSN: 1729-0376; 1813-4424

People in high-risk neighbourhoods try to protect their friends, neighbours, relatives and others from the social and physical risks associated with sex and drug use. This paper develops and validates a community-grounded questionnaire to measure such 'intravention' (health-directed efforts to protect others). An initial ethnography, including life-history interviews and focus groups, explored the forms of intravention activities engaged in by residents of Bushwick (a high-risk New York City neighbourhood). Grassroots categories of intraventions were derived and questions developed to ask about such behaviours. Face validity and adequacy of the questions were assessed by independent experts. Pre-testing was conducted, and reliability and validity were assessed. An instrument including 110 intravention items was administered to 57 community-recruited residents. Analysis focused on 57 items in 11 domain-specific subscale. All subscales had good to very good reliability; Cronbach's alpha ranged from .81 to .95. The subscales evidenced both convergent and discriminant validity. Although further testing of this instrument on additional populations is clearly warranted, this intravention instrument seems valid and reliable. It can be used by researchers in comparative and longitudinal studies of the causes, prevalence and affects of different intravention activities in communities. It can benefit public health practitioners by helping them understand the environments in which they are intervening and by helping them find ways to cooperate with local neighbourhood-level health activists. Des résidents des quartiers à haut risque essayent de protéger leurs amis, leurs voisins, leurs familles et d'autres personnes contre les risques sociaux et physiques liés au sexe et à l'abus de drogues. Cette communication a pour but de développer et de valider un questionnaire, fait exprès pour cette communauté, afin de mesurer ces 'intraventions' (des efforts destinés à protéger la santé des autres). Une ethnographie initiale, qui inclut entre autres des entretiens portant sur le bilan de vie et des groupes de foyer, a examiné les formes d'activités d'intravention exécutées par les résidents de Bushwick (quartier à haut risque de New York City étudié depuis 1990). Les catégories fondamentales des intraventions ont été créées. De plus, des questions ont été formulées afin d'interroger ces comportements. La validité et l'adéquation de questions ont été évaluées de façon décrite