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Shain et al. (2004) randomly assigned 775 low-income, high-risk, African- and Mexican-American women being treated for a non-viral sexually transmitted disease (STD) to one of three conditions - a control condition; a standard, gender- and culture-specific, three-session, small-group, cognitive-behavioral intervention; or an enhanced intervention (standard intervention, plus the option of attending five monthly support-group sessions) - and followed them over a two-year period. Among the 690 women completing the study, lower adjusted rates of infection with chlamydia and/or gonorrhea were observed for women in either intervention arm in comparison with women in the control condition at each evaluation point over the two-year period. Enhanced intervention participants who opted to attend support groups had the lowest adjusted rates of infection (and repeat infections) at both the midpoint and the close of the study. Shain and colleagues conclude that"[r]isk-reduction interventions significantly decreased both single and multiple infective episodes with chlamydia and/or gonorrhea and risky sexual behaviors in the two-year study period. Support-group attendance appeared to contribute additional risk reduction in Year 1" (p. 401). While the low prevalence of HIV in this community made it impossible to evaluate the efficacy of these efforts against seroconversion, the authors reason that"behavioral risk reduction that disrupts heterosexual transmission of bacterial pathogens could also prevent heterosexual transmission of HIV. .." (p. 408).
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Fall 2004 Newsletter /
Volume 6, Issue 1
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