The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has included research findings by Associate Professor of Communication Shawnika Hull as an evidence-informed intervention in the PrEP [cdc.gov] and Structural Intervention [cdc.gov] chapters​ of the “Compendium of Evidence-Based Interventions and Best Practices for HIV Prevention.”

Her team's contributions to the CDC Compendium, Hull said, “will impact the number of women who are aware of PrEP and have access to it. The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of women who become infected with HIV.”

Hull said she and her collaborators “conducted a clinic-level intervention to improve equity in PrEP dissemination, because uptake for women lags far behind uptake for men and far behind what would be expected based on indications for it. There are few (if any) structural interventions designed to improve PrEP uptake among women. As there are no HIV prevention interventions designed to reach Black women in particular, ours is unique. We developed and tested it in the context of an urban clinic that serves a community of women, many of whom could benefit from awareness of PrEP and access to it. So the contribution is twofold: it’s a structural intervention to improve equity in HIV prevention and it is focused on a population (women) that has been overlooked in implementation efforts.”

SC&I Interim Dean Danfa Lemish said, “Congratulations to Shawnika Hull for her most recent accomplishment: having her research listed as an evidence-informed intervention in the CDC’s Compendium of Evidence-Based Interventions and Best Practices for HIV Prevention.  Having her research featured on this website not only speaks to Shawnika’s leadership as a community community-engaged scholar, but its presence on the CDC also expands her reach to communities and scholars and signals that her work is a model for others to follow.”

According to the CDC website, “Interventions and strategies with evidence of effectiveness from the Compendium are used to support of the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. initiative. The highest impact HIV prevention, care, treatment, and outbreak response strategies are scaled up to provide the biggest impact.” 

The CDC includes both “evidence-based” and “evidence-informed” research in the Compendium. According to the CDC, “Evidence-based (EB) criteria are used for studies with at least two groups” and “Evidence-informed (EI) criteria are used for studies evaluating pre and post intervention change or two-group studies with a small number of participants.”

Hull’s research included in the CDC’s Compendium is based upon findings published in “PrEP Services for Urban Women,” reported in “Scott, R. K., Deyarmond, M., Marwitz, S., Huang, J.C., Moriarty, P., Visconti, A.J., Beverley, J., Elion, R., Coleman, M., & Hull, S.J. (2023). “Implementation of an Educational Intervention to Improve HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Services for Women in an Urban Sexual Health Clinic.”

The CDC’s Compendium is considered the gold standard for policymakers, physicians, and other health care practitioners seeking the most current and effective treatment protocols.

Researchers, community-based organizations and health practitioners and policy makers will refer to the CDC’s Compendium because “they may want to improve service delivery or policymaking in the clinical setting," Hull said. "If they go to the compendium, ours will be listed along with the citation and any intervention-specific materials we make publicly available. Some interventions are supported by the CDC, meaning that CDC will create materials, assist with capacity building (e.g. develop training materials and implementation materials).”

Discover more about the Communication Department on the Rutgers School of Communication and Information website.