Engaging Community Businesses in HIV Prevention: A Feasibility Study

Purpose—To explore the feasibility of engaging community businesses in HIV prevention. Design—Randomly selected business owners/managers were asked to display discreetly wrapped condoms and brochures provided free-of-charge for 3 months. Assessments were conducted at baseline, mid-, and post-program. Customer feedback was obtained through an online survey. Setting—San Diego, California neighborhood with a high rate of AIDS. Subjects—Fifty-one business owners/managers representing 10 retail categories, and 52 customers. Measures—Participation rates, descriptive characteristics, number of condoms and brochures distributed, customer feedback, business owners'/managers' program satisfaction and willingness to provide future support for HIV prevention. Analysis—Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney U, Fisher's exact, and McNemar's tests were used to analyze data. Results—The 20 business owners/managers (39%) who agreed to distribute condoms and brochures reported fewer years in business and more employees than those who agreed only to distribute brochures (20%) or refused to participate (41%), p <.05. Bars were the easiest of ten retail categories to recruit. Businesses with more employees and customers distributed more condoms and brochures, p < .05. More than 90% of customers supported distributing condoms and brochures in businesses and 96% of business owners/managers described their program experience as “positive.” Conclusion—Businesses are willing to distribute condoms and brochures to prevent HIV. Policies to increase business participation in HIV prevention should be developed and tested.