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AIDS Prevention and Health Promotion among Women is designed to assist
participants between 16 and 29 years of age in developing and following a sound
sexual health plan. Based on the concepts of empowerment, group social support
and culturally sensitive skill building, this program comprises four 1 1/2- to
2-hour small (2-8 participant) group sessions conducted over the course of
three months. Video segments promote group discussion, spark group role plays
and engage participants in cognitive rehearsal and guided exercises designed to
encourage healthy choices about one's body and sexuality. Specifically, this
program encourages women to think about the physical and emotional consequences
of unsafe sex. It helps them achieve a sense of mastery and positive
expectations when discussing sexual history, HIV/AIDS testing, monogamy,
spermicide and condom use, and other health-related concerns with their
partners. In addition, the program teaches participants how to effectively
negotiate safer sex with one's partner and maintain safer sex goals. This
program was field tested with pregnant low-income African-American and white
women who were using medical center obstetrics services in Akron, Ohio.
Compared to control groups, participants showed significant and sustained
increases in HIV/AIDS knowledge, safer sex goals, and safer-sex behaviors,
including spermicide and condom purchases and use.
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