National HIV Behavioral Surveillance (NHBS) is a survey that has happened every year since 2003 in 20 cities throughout the United States. Each year, the survey is taken by approximately 500 people in each city who are eligible based on that year’s population theme, which rotates between people who inject drugs (PWID), men who have sex with men (MSM), and “high-risk heterosexuals.” When Facente Consulting was hired in 2021, the California Department of Public Health sought support in analyzing San Diego’s NHBS survey data, which had been received by the state health department since 2013.
Facente Consulting designed and conducted a series of exploratory analyses for the last three rounds of PWID and MSM cycles in San Diego. This process included completing data sharing agreements and approximately three months of data analysis. At the end of the project, Facente Consulting supplied the California Department of Public Health with (i) R code that would allow them to easily synthesize and clean the raw datasets for future analyses, and (ii) a summary of preliminary findings about trends related to HIV risk for PWID and MSM in San Diego over the last decade.