Efficacy of a brief behavioral intervention to promote condom use among female sex workers in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
OBJECTIVE
We examined the efficacy of a brief behavioral intervention to promote condom use among female sex workers in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.


METHODS
We randomized 924 female sex workers 18 years or older without known HIV infection living in Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez who had recently had unprotected sex with clients to a 30-minute behavioral intervention or a didactic control condition. At baseline and 6 months, women underwent interviews and testing for HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia.


RESULTS
We observed a 40% decline in cumulative sexually transmitted illness incidence (P = .049) in the intervention group. Incidence density for the intervention versus control groups was 13.8 versus 24.92 per 100 person-years for sexually transmitted illnesses combined (P = .034) and 0 versus 2.01 per 100 person-years for HIV (P < .001). There were concomitant increases in the number and percentage of protected sex acts and decreases in the number of unprotected sex acts with clients (P < .05).


CONCLUSIONS
This brief behavioral intervention shows promise in reducing HIV and sexually transmitted illness risk behaviors among female sex workers and may be transferable to other resource-constrained settings.
Patterson
Thomas L
TL
University of California, San Diego, CA, USA. tpatterson@ucsd.edu
Mausbach
Brent
B
Lozada
Remedios
R
Staines-Orozco
Hugo
H
Semple
Shirley J
SJ
Fraga-Vallejo
Miguel
M
Orozovich
Prisci
P
Abramovitz
Daniela
D
de la Torre
Adela
A
Amaro
Hortensia
H
Martinez
Gustavo
G
Magis-Rodríguez
Carlos
C
Strathdee
Steffanie A
SA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D035841:Behavioral Research; D017280:Condoms / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003376:Counseling; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012309:Risk-Taking; D020377:Self Efficacy; D011477:Sex Work / Q000523:psychology*; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D047568:Unsafe Sex / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014504:Urban Health; D014932:Women's Health Services
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