Use of conjoint analysis to assess HIV vaccine acceptability: feasibility of an innovation in the assessment of consumer health-care preferences

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by SAGE in International Journal of STD & AIDS in 2012. The published version is available at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1258/ijsa.2011.011189Engaging consumers in prospectively shaping strategies for dissemination of health-care innovations may help to ensure acceptability. We examined the feasibility of using conjoint analysis to assess future HIV vaccine acceptability among three diverse communities: a multiethnic sample in Los Angeles, CA, USA (n = 143); a Thai resident sample in Los Angeles (three groups; n = 27) and an Aboriginal peoples sample in Toronto (n = 13). Efficacy had the greatest impact on acceptability for all three groups, followed by cross-clade protection, side-effects and duration of protection in the Los Angeles sample; side-effects and duration of protection in the Thai-Los Angeles sample; and number of doses and duration of protection in the Aboriginal peoples-Toronto sample. Conjoint analysis provided insights into universal and population-specific preferences among diverse end users of future HIV vaccines, with implications for evidence-informed targeting of dissemination efforts to optimize vaccine uptake.This study was supported by the University wide AIDS Research Program through a grant to the UCLA AIDS Research Center (CC99-LA-002), the UCLA AIDS Institute and Palotta Teamworks AIDS Vaccine Rides, NIMH R01MH069087, the Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services (CHIPTS) pilot grant (P30 MH 58107), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) and the Canada Research Chairs Program, and NIMH R01-MH-069087-01A1. Dr Lee’s time to develop this manuscript was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (grant NIMH 5K01MH085503). Dr Cunningham also received partial support from the NIH/NIDA, grant # NIH/NIA, grant # P30-AG021684 and from the NIH/NIMHD grant # P20- MD000182