Research

The evidence-base of our activities

The evidence-based of our activities

Evidence-based work is one of the core operating principles alongside community-based participatory and culturally sensitive approaches. This means that our interventions and prevention materials are based either on our own research or guided by national and/or international research. Both are regularly reviewed and  updated in accordance with new scientific guidance on effective prevention methods to ensure the high quality of our activities.

We monitor our interventions on an ongoing basis to strengthen the link between science and practice. In this way we contribute to creating practice-based evidence, since not all of our operational research can meet the standards of highly-graded scientific evidence. We use quality improvement methods to ensure that our prevention activities meet high quality standards.

High quality prevention must be contextualized and tailored to the needs of the population it addresses. Therefore, we use qualitative research methods, for instance to assess barriers to HIV-testing ,in the community for developing tools for health care providers to support the promotion of HIV-testing, such as brochures, fact-sheets and guidance for HIV-testing in primary care. Another research domain relates to qualitatively exploring HIV-related stigma to be able to reduce this barrier to HIV prevention and care.

One of our landmark studies, the TOGETHER Project, had the objective to understand the dynamics of the HIV epidemic among Africans in community settings in Antwerp city. This study delivered the first HIV prevalence estimates among sub-Saharan Africans based in Antwerp, which have guided our primary prevention activities. Our systematically developed  psychosocial interventions aim at improving the quality of life of people living with HIV. Therefore, a scientific mixed methods study is conducted to evaluate them.

We partner in European public health or research projects such as project EURO HIV EDAT to improve community-based voluntary counselling and testing, or the European aMASE study.

Are you interested in research on HIV among Sub-Saharan African migrants?

• Contact Christiana Nöstlinger, team coordinator
  • + 32 (0)3 247 64 72
  • cnoestlinger@itg.be