Posted on 07/04/2010 8:06:51 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
(CNSNews.com) - The federal government has spent $550,496 on a project that involved conducting “focus groups and in-depth interviews” with American long-haul truck drivers to learn about their sex lives in order to assess their risk of contracting HIV or other sexually transmitted infections.
The project has failed to find any instances of HIV among the truck drivers studied.
“Several international studies have documented substantial levels of sexual risk behaviors and high rates of STI and HIV amongst long-distance truck drivers living in diverse settings including India, Bangladesh, South Africa and Thailand,” says the abstract for the grant published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “In the United States, while it is known that STI and HIV cases are frequently concentrated around major transportation routes, less is known regarding specific HIV/STI risk behaviors and HIV/STI prevalence amongst the over 3 million truck drivers in this country.”
To gather information about the “risk behaviors” of truck drivers, the study proposed doing five things, starting with the focus groups and interviews: “1) To perform focus groups and in-depth interviews based on the constructs of the transtheoretical model with long-haul truck drivers to guide development of both a behavioral risk assessment instrument and an acceptable HIV/STI screening protocol for long-haul truckers; 2) To perform in-depth interviews with trucking industry executives to determine barriers to routine HIV/STI assessment and screening of their employees; 3) To adapt existing theory-based measures of behavioral risk based on focus group data from long-haul truck drivers so as to reflect the attitudes and culture of this understudied population; 4) To estimate the prevalence of key sexual risk behaviors and examine the predictors of those prevalence rates; and 5) To determine the prevalence of HIV, N. gonorrhoeae, and C. trachomatis, in long-haul truck drivers.”
The NIH Web pages for the grant do not say how much federal money was spent on the study, but NIH spokeswoman Charlotte Armstrong told CNSNews.com that $550,496 has been awarded for the research to date. The grant was made by the National Institute of Mental Health, a division of the NIH. The project began in September 2005 and is scheduled to end in August 2010.
“Overall, we have not found really significant numbers of STDs, and we haven’t found any HIV,” Dr. Laura Bachmann, the principal investigator on the project, told CNSNews.com. “Part of the issue is: I moved in the mean time, so that’s why it’s taking awhile to get it done.”
Dr. Bachmann began the research when she was an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and is continuing the study in her current position as an associate professor of infectious diseases at Wake Forest University, Wake Forest, N.C.
The research is a “preliminary type study,” Dr. Bachmann said, designed to assess the risk level and prevalence of sexual infections through focus groups and in-depth interviews with truck drivers. Screening of truckers has been “episodic,” not ongoing and continuous, she said, and she and her research team have interviewed around 300 truckers since 2005.
The project was designed “to figure out what the level of risk was going on, and the prevalence of these different infections,” Dr. Bachmann told CNSNews.com.
“In terms of the prevalence of infections, we’re not seeing, as I mentioned, significant numbers of STDs or HIV, and so now the issue is: Do we need to change the sampling strategy because we’re not finding a lot of misbehavior or STDs in our small sample--which is opportunistic screening and kind of getting drivers as you encounter them?" said Dr. Bachmann. "So it may be that some other type of screening strategy or way to approach them would find a different population than what we have found.”
CNSNews.com asked Dr. Bachmann if the study was an appropriate use of taxpayer funds.
“I think that HIV and STDs are significant public health concerns, and there’s been data from, primarily, other countries, but many other countries--and then some domestic studies--that have suggested that it could be a significant problem,” she said.
“[T]hey’re infections that you can treat, and if you find out, even though you can’t cure HIV, if you find out about it early enough then you can prevent complications and then further transmission which is a public health threat,” she said.
“In addition, there’s a lot of other health issues that drivers face because the lifestyle’s difficult, and we also have described some of those even though it didn’t start out being the focus of the study when we met with the drivers, and they gave their input in how we did the screening protocol. They wanted general health checks. And so we did that,” she said.
She added: “I think it’s an important population for the economy of the United States, and then as well for safety on the roads. So I think there’s multiple things that can come out of this in terms of, even though we didn’t find the level of risk that we thought may be going on.”
“Once again I don’t know, I can’t say that the study settles that absolutely, but we also learned that we can work with trucking companies, that you can work with truck stops to access drivers, and that most drivers are willing to participate,” said Dr. Bachmann.
Dr. Bachmann pointed out that this was part of NIH’s “R34” program—or what the NIH calls on its Web site a “clinical trial planning grant.” “[S]o the point of it is to figure out which strategies work before you do a bigger study," she said.
When asked if she is planning to reapply for a new grant soon, Dr. Bachmann said, “Not right now.”
Good question!
I believe he is Canadian!
Well someone in the Mental Health Department wanted to look busy and relevant. Pork doesn't just go to the everyday sheeple ... I guess ... .
They’re spending even more here:
$1.44 Million [to study] the ‘Social Milieu’ of Male Prostitutes in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2543904/posts
In the NYT last week was an article about how high risk populations were burning through funds that states have allocated for their medical insurance and care. A fellow in Fort Lauderdale was concerned about where he would get his drugs if Florida taps out its spending for the program. The NYT plays the violins and repeats this vignette in a number of states, all without calculating the cost to taxpayers. The fellow from Fort Lauderdale admitted he had been on the program for approximately 12 years (or $144,000). That's one person for 12 years.
So the cost of this fellow attaining HIV+ status is $12,000/year for drugs alone, for how many years he has to reach the "normal" life expectancy for a person who is HIV+.
It seems to me that research like this - if it leads to some insight that helps stop the creation of new cases like the fellow from Fort Lauderdale, may be pretty cost effective.
I realize it's galling thing to have to pay for the costs that irresponsible people offload on the taxpayer. It really shouldn't be that way. Given that it is, if research like this reduces the number of people who get in line for that program, I grudgingly say we should go for it. In a better world there would be stronger disincentives for people to effectively take risks with their lives and with other peoples money.
They’re still desperately trying to show that some group other than queers get and spread AIDS...
They’re still desperately trying to show that some group other than queers get and spread AIDS...
They’re still desperately trying to show that some group other than queers get and spread AIDS...
They’re still desperately trying to show that some group other than queers get and spread AIDS...
They’re still desperately trying to show that some group other than queers get and spread AIDS...
They’re still desperately trying to show that some group other than queers get and spread AIDS...
They’re still desperately trying to show that some group other than queers get and spread AIDS...
Kinda tough to keep a CDL if you are getting rear-ended, or doing the 'rear ending'...
Does our Congress sit around just thinking up these ridiculous titles to bills or amendments hidden in bills when they are really putting the money into private slush funds stolen from the taxpayer to finance their own sorry butts?
Keep on truckin’...
Maybe they should spend money to study studies.
Some are married, some like hookers. Some are married and like hookers. There, I just did it for free.
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