A skills-training group intervention model to assist persons in reducing risk behaviors for HIV infection.
Fifteen gay men with a history of recent high-risk sexual activities attended seven group sessions that provided risk education, training in self-management skills pertinent to risk reduction, sexual assertiveness training, and problem solving with respect to health consciousness, social supports, and efficacy of risk-reduction change. Before and after intervention, subjects completed measures of AIDS risk knowledge, sexual practices occurring over 4-month retrospective periods, and self-monitored records of ongoing sexual activities and participated in role plays assessing behavioral assertiveness skill for resisting high-risk coercions. Eight-month follow-up data were also collected. Subjects exhibited substantial and well-maintained change following intervention in behaviors relevant to HIV infection risk, including frequency of unprotected anal intercourse (which decreased to near-zero levels), condom use (which increased to almost 90% of intercourse occasions), and in an index that reflects the multiplicative function of risk behaviors frequency by the number of partners with whom high-risk behaviors occurs. This demonstration provides further evidence that skills-training approaches can assist individuals in implementing behavior changes to reduce risk for AIDS and identifies a model relevant to counseling efforts in AIDS prevention programs, HIV counseling and testing programs, drug abuse and STD clinics, and other applied settings.
Kelly
J A
JA
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson 39216.
St Lawrence
J S
JS
Betts
R
R
Brasfield
T L
TL
Hood
H V
HV
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006716:Homosexuality / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012944:Social Support