Needs Assessment to Enhance Knowledge of People in Puerto Rico Living with Alopecia Areata.

OBJECTIVE: Alopecia areata (AA) is an autoimmune condition which affects hair follicles provoking their loss. Although the cumulative incidence of AA in the United States is estimated at 2.1%, the number of people living with this condition in Puerto Rico is unknown. In addition, little has been published about people in Puerto Rico who have this condition and its impact on health. We conducted a needs assessment study to help reduce this information gap and address the perceived needs of people living with AA in Puerto Rico. METHODS: A needs assessment study was conducted with a non-experimental, descriptive, transversal design. A 40-item questionnaire was available through the Google Forms platform. Descriptive analysis was conducted. RESULTS: Most of the participants were women, had AA universalis, were diagnosed (on average) at 19 years of age, and were receiving treatment at the time of the survey. Most of the participants reported having both access to information or education about alopecia and the support of their family and friends but professed needing informational support. In particular, they wanted to find out about treatment options for their alopecia. CONCLUSION: Gender and time since the onset of AA appear to be important variables that must be considered when conducting future studies and interventions with this population. These future studies and interventions should address the informational support needs of people living with AA.

Etnografía acelerada para transformar normas sociales sobre género y sexualidad en hombres puertorriqueños heterosexuales.

Dominant gender roles contribute to the risk of contracting HIV, for that reason the integration of social norms regarding gender into HIV prevention interventions has been urged. This study aims to adapt and develop an intervention to facilitate the transformation of social norms related to gender and sexual practices in Puerto Rican men. The intervention aims to transform social norms related to gender and sexuality in community bars using the Popular Opinion Leaders Model. After being selected, opinion leaders disseminate messages that stress the importance of equitable relationships between men and women for HIV prevention. The first phase of this intervention is discussed in this article. This phase includes a process of rapid ethnography to identify community settings in which we could develop the intervention and allow us to understand the culture of these community bars. From ethnographic observations we: developed a security protocol, developed a profile of the culture of these bars, chose the bars that participate in the two study conditions, and adapted the intervention instruments to respond to the particularities of our participants.