HIV/AIDS in Asian and Pacific Islander Communities in the United States: A Follow-up Review and Analysis with Recommendations for Researchers and Practitioners

Abstract

A steady increase in the spread of HIV in Asian and Pacific Islander (API) communities in the United States has been reported in the new millennium. This article provides an update on Yep's earlier synthesis of research on HIV/AIDS in API communities in the United States [1], and offers recommendations for further theoretical work and community interventions. First, the AIDS Risk Reduction Model (ARRM) is introduced and described. Second, using ARRM as an organizing framework, behavioral research on API HIV/AIDS published since 1992–93 is reviewed and synthesized. Third, the ARRM is examined for its appropriateness for API communities. Finally, recommendations are offered for researchers and practitioners doing HIV education and prevention work in U.S. API communities in the coming decade. AIDS in any community of color involves a thorough discourse on AIDSphobia, racism, homophobia, sex(uality), sexism, classism, and other social diseases that compose the total realities of the pandemic…. The AIDS crisis in Asian America is riddled with complexities [2, pp. 201–202]. The development of Asian American responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been a struggle for visibility and particularity within an epidemic in which Asians and Pacific Islanders were first invisible and then seen as monocultural by dominant institutions [3, p. 63].