Sarah Jane Steele Taleski
Sarah Jane Steele (Taleski) is a PhD Candidate in Epidemiology and a student in the Collaborative Program in Global Health at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public. Sarah Jane holds a CIHR Doctoral Research Award in the Area of Health Services/Population Heath HIV/AIDS Research. Her dissertation work explores the contextual-, individual-, partnership-, and network- factors that contribute to sexual behaviour among men who have sex with men in Shanghai, China. She currently holds a SRC Student/Trainee Research award for the project “HIV prevention interventions for Asian Men who have Sex with Men: A comparison of perspectives between recent and non-recnt Asian immigrants to Canada and Chinese MSM.” Sarah Jane received an AUCC Students for Development Grant for work with the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She has Bachelor’s degrees in Science and Physical and Health Education from Queen’s University and a Master’s of Health Sciences (MHSc) in Community Health and Epidemiology from the University of Toronto. During her MHSc Sarah Jane completed placements with the Government of the Northwest Territories, Department of Health and Social Services and with the UK-Medical Research Council- The Gambia. After this, she assumed a program management role at the University of Zambia’s HIV Response Office on a CIDA-funded internship. Sarah Jane is an avid knitter and experimental pie baker.
HIV prevention interventions for Asian Men who have Sex with Men (MSM): A comparison of perspectives between recent and non-recent Asian immigrants to Canada and Chinese MSM
With emerging and re-emerging HIV epidemics, men who have sex with (MSM) remain a population highly affected by HIV in Canada and worldwide. Research related to the determinants of risk behaviour among Chinese MSM, and development, implementation and evaluation of prevention programs for this population has been limited. Consequently, little is known about the transferability of HIV education and prevention programs between Chinese MSM, Asian-Canadian MSM and the broader population of Canadian MSM. Two activities will be conducted to address these gaps: 1) An inventory and comparative analysis of HIV prevention interventions used among MSM in China and among Asian MSM in Canada,and 2)Focus group discussion of current HIV prevention initiatives. The inventory will provide the basis for a comparative analysis of potential types of interventions and formats as well as the extent, penetration, consistency, change in messages, and focus (knowledge, attitudes) of potential interventions, in order to identify successes, weaknesses, gaps, or specific opportunities for future interventions. Emphasis will be on collecting materials used among Chinese and Asian-Canadian men; however, some mainstream messaging will also be reviewed. Two focus groups will be conducted among MSM in Shanghai. In addition, one focus group each will be conducted among recent (<5 years) and non-recent Asian immigrants (≥5 years) to Canada (MSM). Key themes to the explored during the focus group discussions include: differences and similarities in media and language used in Canada and Shanghai; differences and similarities between content covered and hypothesised reasons for these differences; perceived gaps in prevention interventions and acceptability of messages. The primary target audiences for the activities include: AIDS service organisations in Shanghai and Canada; public health practitioners and policy makers in Shanghai, and; Chinese MSM in Shanghai and Canada. This information will be used to identify opportunities for future sexual health education interventions.
