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About HIV Big Deal

HIV Big Deal is an ongoing, multi-faceted, internet-based effort to motivate gay men to have safer sex and to get tested for HIV. At the core of the project is a series of 10-minute video dramas that tell the story of a young gay man in New York City. In style, the videos are realistic and riveting, but they are also research-based educational tools, designed to effectively challenge misconceptions and prompt critical thinking.

HIV Big Deal has released two episodes in the series and more are in production. The first episode, "The Morning After," was evaluated for its effectiveness in changing behavior using baseline and follow-up surveys with a group of 500 men. The results showed that the men were three times more likely to disclose their HIV status and about 1.5 times more likely to get tested for HIV three months after seeing the video.

Co-Directors Dr. Mary Ann Chiasson and Dr. Francine Shuchat Shaw, bring expertise from the very different fields of epidemiology and learning theory to their collaboration. Dr. Chiasson is an epidemiologist and Vice President for Research and Evaluation with Public Health Solutions, one of the largest nonprofit organizations in New York City. Dr. Shuchat Shaw, a faculty member of the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University, is a veteran researcher in learning theory and the design of educational media.

HIV Big Deal was conceived and developed in response to the continuing HIV epidemic among gay men.

While both the incidence of AIDS and the number of deaths due to AIDS declined dramatically following the introduction of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 1996, the incidence of HIV infection has not declined. In fact, it has grown, especially among gay men. An estimated 40,000 new HIV infections have occurred annually in the United States since the early 1990s. About half the newly reported infections are in gay men with the remainder in heterosexual and injection drug-using adults. This steady rate of infection combined with declining mortality due to AIDS has resulted in a growing number of people living with HIV, many of them gay men.

Early in the HIV-AIDS epidemic, community-wide safe sex messages delivered through print ads and media campaigns were effective in lowering high-risk behaviors. Many individualized and small group intervention programs to prevent HIV transmission through sex and injection drug use have been developed since then, but surprisingly, only a small proportion targeted gay men. The Internet, with its vast geographic and demographic reach, is the ideal medium for a new generation of prevention efforts able to reach gay men already online.