...Condoms in Barbershops? ...in the Deep South? I Don't Know About That: An Exploration of the Current Literature

Issues: Reports on new cases of HIV infection are on the rise in the Deep South. Approximately one in 16 African-American males will contract HIV in their lifetime (CDC, 2011), yet few interventions target African-American males exclusively in HIV prevention efforts. Alternative venues away from traditional healthcare facilities may be viable sites to combat the war on HIV.

Description: Barbershops are one location in which African-American males congregate to gather information. An empirical literature review was conducted on primary prevention HIV interventions utilizing barbershops as sites for the distribution of condoms, including where the interventions were held.

Lessons Learned: Barbershops have been included, among many other sites, to distribute free condoms, but few programs have been implemented in the Deep South and even fewer programs nationally have targeted barbershops exclusively as venues to help reduce the spread of HIV. One effective program, in addition to providing condoms, allowed the barbers to act as peer educators about HIV and other STI’s. Peer education, combined with the provision of free condoms, shows promise in stabilizing the HIV trends within a high-risk population in the Deep South.

Recommendations: Further exploration is needed to gauge the efficacy and feasibility of using barbershops as sites for the distribution of free condoms to clientele. The target audience should be barbershops that primarily serve African-American males who are underrepresented in the HIV prevention literature.