| Abstract: | Recruiting gay and bisexual men into AIDS-related research and education programs will become increasingly common as federal, state and local funds become available. The Pitt Men's Study, a study of the natural history of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection, developed a recruitment strategy based on marketing principles. These techniques allowed the study to target particular gay and bisexual groups for inclusion. 1718 gay and bisexual men were recruited. Non-whites and unemployed men were targeted and recruited in numbers comparable to their representation in the larger community.Anthony Silvestre, M.A., is Director of Community Programs for the Pitt Men's Study, Department of Infections Diseases and Microbiology, University of Pittsburgh. David W. Lyter, M.D., is Clinical Director of the Pitt Men's Study, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh. Charles R. Rinaldo, Jr., Ph.D., is the Principal Investigator of the Pitt Men's Study, Departments of Pathology and Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, University of Pittsburgh. Lawrence A. Kingsley, Dr. P.H., is the Epidemiologist of the Pitt Men's Study, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh. Randall Forrester, B.A., is a consultant with the Pitt Men's Study and the Executive Director of the Persad Center. James Huggins, M.S.W., A.C.S.W., is a consultant of the Pitt Men's Study and the Director of Clinical Programs of the Persad Center.This study was supported by NIH Contract NO 1-AI32513.We are indebted to Pittsburgh's gay community for its support of our project. We thank Brett Cassens, Nick Ifft, Art Duprat, Albert Pasquarelli, Nnena Odim, the late Daniel Sbrochi, Deborah C. Laurie, Alan Simmons, Richard Witt and Douglas Johnson.A portion of this paper was presented at the International Conference on AIDS in Atlanta in April, 1985. |
