Outcomes of a randomized community-level HIV prevention intervention for women living in 18 low-income housing developments

• Published in: American journal of public health (1971) Vol. 90; no. 1; pp. 57 - 63
• Main Authors: Sikkema, KJ, Kelly, JA, Winett, RA, Solomon, LJ, Cargill, VA, Roffman, RA, McAuliffe, TL, Heckman, TG, Anderson, EA, Wagstaff, DA, Norman, AD, Perry, MJ, Crumble, DA, Mercer, MB
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC Am Public Health Assoc 01.01.2000; American Public Health Association
• Subjects: Adult; AIDS/HIV; Alcohol use; Biological and medical sciences; Community based programmes; Condoms - statistics & numerical data; disease transmission; Female; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; HIV; HIV Infections - prevention & control; Human immunodeficiency virus; Human viral diseases; Humans; Infectious diseases; Inner cities; Likelihood Functions; Linear Models; Low income neighbourhoods; Medical sciences; Outcome Assessment (Health Care); Outcomes; Poverty; Prevention and actions; Public health; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Public Housing; Risk-Taking; Sexual Behavior; Sexual Partners; Specific populations (family, woman, child, elderly...); United States; Viral diseases; Viral diseases of the lymphoid tissue and the blood. Aids; Women; Women's Health Services; United States; North America; America; Human; Immunopathology; Sanitary program; Poverty; Socioeconomic status; Condom; Multicenter study; Use; Sexual behavior; AIDS; Operation; Immune deficiency; Epidemiology; Infection; Prevention; Randomization; Viral disease; Female; Public health
• ISSN: 0090-0036; 1541-0048
• DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.90.1.57

Women in impoverished inner-city neighborhoods are at high risk for contracting HIV. A randomized, multisite community-level HIV prevention trial was undertaken with women living in 18 low-income housing developments in 5 US cities. Baseline and 12-month follow-up population risk characteristics were assessed by surveying 690 women at both time points. In the 9 intervention condition housing developments, a community-level intervention was undertaken that included HIV risk reduction workshops and community HIV prevention events implemented by women who were popular opinion leaders among their peers. The proportion of women in the intervention developments who had any unprotected intercourse in the past 2 months declined from 50% to 37.6%, and the percentage of women's acts of intercourse protected by condoms increased from 30.2% to 47.2%. Among women exposed to intervention activities, the mean frequency of unprotected acts of intercourse in the past 2 months tended to be lower at follow-up (mean = 4.0) than at baseline (mean = 6.0). These changes were corroborated by changes in other risk indicators. Community-level interventions that involve and engage women in neighborhood-based HIV prevention activities can bring about reductions in high-risk sexual behaviors.