Is a General Women's Health Promotion Program as Effective as an HIV-Intensive Prevention Program in Reducing HIV Risk among Hispanic Women?

• Published in: Public health reports (1974) Vol. 116; no. 6; pp. 599 - 607
• Main Authors: Anita Raj, Hortensia Amaro, Kevin Cranston, Brett Martin, Cabral, Howard, Amanda Navarro, Kerith Conron
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Oxford University Press 01.11.2001; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC; Association of Schools of Public Health
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; AIDS; AIDS Serodiagnosis - utilization; Communication; Condoms; Condoms - utilization; Control groups; Cooperative Behavior; Dosage; Female; Health Education - organization & administration; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health promotion; Health Promotion - organization & administration; Health Services Research - organization & administration; Hispanic Americans; Hispanic Americans - psychology; Hispanics; HIV; HIV Infections - diagnosis; HIV Infections - ethnology; HIV Infections - prevention & control; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Logistic Models; Massachusetts - epidemiology; Posttests; Preventive medicine; Program Evaluation; Public health; Public Health Administration; Risk Factors; Risk-Taking; Safe Sex - ethnology; Safe Sex - statistics & numerical data; Schools, Public Health; Women; Women's Health; Womens health; Massachusetts
• ISSN: 0033-3549; 1468-2877
• DOI: 10.1016/S0033-3549(04)50093-6

Objective: This study aimed to assess whether participants in an HIV-intensive prevention program and participants in a general women's health promotion program reported greater HIV risk-reduction than participants in a wait-list control group immediately following program participation and at three-month follow-up. Methods: The authors studied 162 Hispanic women ages 18 to 35 years, most of them immigrants. Three-fourths of the sample (74%) reported earning less than $800 a month, 29% did not have a high school degree, and 90% had children. Data were gathered through surveys at baseline, at intervention completion, and at three-month follow-up. Information was collected on sociodemographics, HIV risk factors, and risk behaviors. Crude and adjusted (for demographics and dose) logistic regression analyses were used to assess program effects on participants' risk reduction. Results: Crude logistic regression analyses reveal that both programs resulted in increased condom use at post-test and follow-up. Only participants in the HIV-intensive prevention program reported increased safer sex negotiation at post-test and follow-up, however, and only participants in the women's health promotion program reported increased HIV testing at post-test. Conclusion: Both interventions increased condom use. The HIV-intensive prevention program appeared to be more effective in promoting safer sex negotiation, and the women's health promotion program appeared more effective in promoting HIV testing. The findings suggest that both approaches may be viable ways to package HIV prevention for short-term behavior change in this population.