title: Impact of a secondary prevention intervention among HIV-positive older women.
abstract: Despite the fact that older women represent a growing risk group for HIV, they have been rarely targeted by public health campaigns designed to prevent HIV/AIDS and are often excluded from many prevention studies. This unique cohort may be often overlooked due to beliefs that older women are not sexually active and do not engage in high risk sexual activity. Data suggest a need for increased attention to this unique cohort. Risk reduction interventions tailored to the special needs of people living with HIV/AIDS have begun to demonstrate promising results. In this manuscript, we report the 6 month outcomes for female participants in Project ROADMAP, a secondary prevention intervention designed to reduce high risk sexual behavior in older adults living with HIV/AIDS. Our results indicate that female participants in the intervention group were more likely to report a reduction in high risk sexual behavior than women in the control condition. Our findings also suggest that the intervention succeeded in increasing the HIV-related knowledge of the participants and decreasing their stigma vis-à-vis the HIV condition. The study findings suggest that Project ROADMAP is an effective secondary prevention intervention for sexually active older HIV positive women.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA. mechenique@med.miami.edu
authors.forename: Marisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Echenique
authors.forename: Lourdes
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Illa
authors.forename: Gilbert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Saint-Jean
authors.forename: Victoria Bustamante
authors.initials: VB
authors.lastname: Avellaneda
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sanchez-Martinez
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Eisdorfer
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000375:Aging; D017280:Condoms / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011634:Public Health; D012307:Risk Factors; D055502:Secondary Prevention; D018571:Sentinel Surveillance; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057545:Social Stigma; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data