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Efficacy of an intervention in reducing HIV risk behaviors, non-viral STIs and HPV among African-American women: results of a randomized controlled trial
Presented by Gina Wingood, United States.
G. Wingood1, R. DiClemente1, L. Simpson Robinson1, D. Lang1, J. Hardin2
1Emory University, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Atlanta, United States, 2University of South Carolina, Columbia, United States
Background: African-American women, particularly those in the Southern United States, experience a disproportionate burden of HIV/STIs. To address this health disparity, we evaluated the efficacy of an intervention in reducing non-viral STIs and HPV, and HIV/STI-associated sexual behaviors among African-American women in the Southern United States.
Methods: A random sample of African-American women, 18-29 years of age (N=848), recruited from Kaiser Permanente in Atlanta, Georgia, participated in a randomized controlled trial of a gender and relationship-focused HIV/STI sexual risk-reduction intervention.
Results: Over the 12-months follow-up, participants in the HIV/STI intervention, relative to the general health condition, were less likely to have non-viral incident STIs (OR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.40-0.96; P=.033), an incident infection of high-risk HPV (OR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.18-0.77; P=.008), and were less likely to have either a non-viral STI or HPV (OR, .35; 95% CI, .17-.70; P=.003). Additionally, participants in the HIV/STI intervention were less likely to have multiple male sexual partners, were more likely to use condoms during oral sex, inform their main sex partner of their STI test results, ask their main sex partner to have an STI test, report that their main sex partner was treated for STI, and to report not douching.
Conclusion: The magnitude, consistency, and scope of effects strengthen confidence in the efficacy of the intervention to reduce incident HPV and non-viral STIs and enhance preventive behaviors and mediators of safer sex. Efficacious sexual risk-reduction interventions, addressing critical issues of race and gender, remain valuable tools in our armamentarium to reduce women’s risk of disease.
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