Lynae A. Darbes, PhD

Lynae A. Darbes, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Biological Sciences in the School of Nursing at the University of Michigan. She is a clinical health psychologist by training, and her research focuses on the impact that intimate partners can have on health outcomes and health behaviors, especially in the realm of HIV testing and sexual behavior.

 

She has conducted research with heterosexual couples in sub-Saharan Africa, including being the Principal Investigator of an NIH-funded RCT of a couples-based intervention aiming to promote couples-based HIV testing and counseling in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. She is also collaborating on an NIH-funded pilot study of a home-based couples intervention for pregnant women and their male partners in Kenya (Janet Turan, PI) and a DFID and MAC AIDS-funded study of MSM (men who have sex with men) couples in South Africa and Namibia (Heidi van Rooyen, PI, Rob Stephenson, PI).

 

Concurrently, she has been involved in several longitudinal studies of gay male couples in the San Francisco Bay Area exploring the role of sexual agreements on sexual risk behavior and HIV testing. This program of research has led to the development of an intervention delivered both in-person and online for gay couples to improve their communication and help in making agreements that cover a broad range of HIV prevention and treatment topics (along with Colleen Hoff). She is aiming to broaden her research to other health concerns, including cancer and reproductive health.