IU to expand public health partnership aimed at promoting sexual health research, education, and training activities in India

Brian Dodge

In India, a country of 1.24 billion people, of whom nearly 2.5 million are currently living with HIV, the need is even more urgent for public health interventions that are evidence-based, culturally congruent, and high impact in terms of their ability to promote sexual health. In India, sexual risk behavior remains the main mode of HIV transmission and men who have sex with men (MSM) are characterized by disproportionately high rates of HIV prevalence (ranging between 7% and 24%). Relatively high rates of bisexual behavior have also been found among Indian men. Men who have sex with both men and women (MSMW), who may or may not self-identify as a “bisexual,” face unique psychosocial challenges but they remain understudied and underserved.

Dr. Brian Dodge, associate professor in the Department of Applied Health Science and associate director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion, and his research colleague Dr. Swagata Banik, associate professor of and director of the public health program at Baldwin Wallace University in Ohio, recently met with partners in India’s oldest and largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health service and advocacy organization, The Humsafar Trust. The team laid the groundwork for an exploratory study of sexual health among Indian bisexual men, which led to a series of focus groups, followed by in-depth interviews with 50 behaviorally bisexual men in Mumbai. They intend to use the pilot data for a subsequent grant proposal to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

This summer, the team will return to India to share the preliminary findings of their first project and, in collaboration with several new colleagues from the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington, to launch a new initiative, the U.S.-India Partnership for Sexual Health Promotion. 

The primary goal of the partnership will be to facilitate new opportunities for advancing the field of sexual health through collaborative and community-based research, education and training initiatives among colleagues on both continents. With institutional support from the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs at Indiana University, the members of this unique initiative are hoping to expand their efforts to work with other sexual health issues and priority populations in other geographical areas throughout India.

"We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to collaborate with Baldwin Wallace University, The Humsafar Trust, and other with others across the Indiana University Bloomington campus who are invested in promoting public health research and practice initiatives in India," Dodge added. "It truly is a special place and we simply would not be able to do this work without the insight and expertise of our academic and community partners as well as the resources and institutional support from Indiana University."