Counseling Improves Safe Sex Practices Among HIV-Positive Individuals
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Counseling Improves Safe Sex Practices Among HIV-Positive Individuals
A behavioral intervention program that teaches strategies for practicing safe sex to HIV-positive men and women reduces both the incidence of risky sex behavior and risk for transmission of the virus, according to a new study.
"The new study is among the first to demonstrate successful HIV-transmission risk-reduction resulting from a behavioral intervention tailored for HIV-positive men and women," says author Seth C. Kalichman, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry with the Center for AIDS Intervention Research at the Medical College of Wisconsin. It is published in the August issue of the "American Journal of Preventive Medicine."
According to an earlier study by Dr. Kalichman, one out of three individuals who are HIV-positive engage in unsafe sex. "Unprotected sex increases the risk of transmitting the human immunodeficiency virus, as well as spreading other sexually transmitted diseases," he says.
The new study of 230 men and 98 women, was conducted in Atlanta, an urban area with a large HIV-positive population. Individuals in the intervention group participated in five group sessions that consisted of lessons on coping with HIV-related stress and risky sexual situations; improving participants' ability to decide how to reveal HIV status to sexual partners; and promoting safer sex practices. Individuals in the control group attended five meetings of a social support group.
Two group facilitators, including an HIV-positive peer counselor, led the intervention sessions. Fifty-two percent of the participants were homosexual, 39 percent were heterosexual and nine percent were bisexual.
Six months after the end of the group counseling, participants in the behavioral intervention group were less likely to engage in unprotected sex and more likely to use condoms. Estimated HIV transmission rates over a one-year period were also significantly lower for the intervention group.
"This study was motivated by the urgent need for interventions to reduce HIV-transmission risk for HIV-positive people," says Kalichman. "We conclude that behavioral interventions should be integrated into care systems for people living with HIV infection."
The fact that fewer people are dying of AIDS translates to a growing population of people living with AIDS and HIV and an increasing potential for the spread of drug-resistant strains of the infection, the authors note, adding this makes it all the more important to increase access to risk-reduction interventions that offer the "greatest hope for preventing HIV infections."
The study was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Co-researchers on the study include: David Rompa; Marjorie Cage, Ph.D., director of the Medical College's Center for Science Education; Research Associates Kari DiFonzo, B.S.W., Delores Simpson, L.P.N., James Austin, Webster Luke, B.A., and Florence Kyomugisha, M.A.; Jeff Buckles, B.A., supervisor of data entry; Eric Benotsch, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry; Steven Pinkerton, Ph.D. associate professor of psychiatry and Jeff Graham, M.A., executive director of the AIDS Survival Project in Atlanta.
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