Adolescents Living Safely: AIDS Awareness, Attitudes and Actions for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Teens

Investigators: Sutherland Miller, Joyce Hunter, M.S.W., & Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus, Ph.D.

Designed to provide education, social and medical services, and peer support to gay,lesbian and bisexual youths between 14 and 19 years of age, this program combines case management, comprehensive health care, and risk assessment counseling with small group discussion sessions. During the group sessions, transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS are investigated through workshops in which youth create their own educational materials. Participants also receive behavioral and cognitive skills training for coping with high-risk situations. The case management and counseling components are designed to identify individual needs and provide youth with appropriate services (e.g., legal, medical, vocational). A field study of the intervention was initiated with 138 males at a community-based agency serving gay youth in New York City. The impact of the program was found to vary over time and across racial/ethnic groups. African-American and white teens showed a significant decrease in unprotected anal intercourse at the three-month follow-up assessment; at six months the decrease was recorded only among whites. On measures of unprotected oral intercourse, white and Hispanic youths engaged in fewer risk acts through the twelve-month assessment; for African-Americans, the decrease was maintained only until six months following the intervention. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2016

Investigators: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is the nation's premier system of health-related telephone surveys that collect state data about U.S. residents regarding their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and use of preventive services. Established in 1984 with 15 states, BRFSS now collects data in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories. BRFSS completes more than 400,000 adult interviews each year, making it the largest continuously conducted health survey system in the world. By collecting behavioral health risk data at the state and local level, BRFSS has become a powerful tool for targeting and building health promotion activities. As a result, BRFSS users have increasingly demanded more data and asked for more questions on the survey. Currently, there is a wide sponsorship of the BRFSS survey, including most divisions in the CDC National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; other CDC centers; and federal agencies, such as the Health Resources and Services Administration, Administration on Aging, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The BRFSS objective is to collect uniform, state-specific data on preventive health practices and risk behaviors that are linked to chronic diseases, injuries, and preventable infectious diseases that affect the adult population. Factors assessed by the BRFSS in 2016 include health status, healthy days, health-related quality of life, health care access, exercise, inadequate sleep, chronic health conditions, oral health, tobacco use, e-cigarettes, alcohol consumption, immunization, falls, seat belt use, drinking and driving, breast- and cervical cancer screening, prostate cancer screening, colorectal cancer screening, and HIV/AIDS knowledge. Since 2011, the BRFSS conducts both landline telephone- and cellular telephone-based surveys. In conducting the BRFSS landline telephone survey, interviewers collect data from a randomly selected adult in a household. In conducting the cellular telephone version of the BRFSS questionnaire, interviewers collect data from an adult who participates by using a cellular telephone and resides in a private residence or college housing.

Doing Something Different: Group Counseling at STD Clinics to Promote Condom Use

Investigators: Deborah A. Cohen

Doing Something Different, a single-session, one-hour intervention, was designed for use in an inner-city public health clinic, but is appropriate for use in any community setting that provides education or services to at-risk populations. The intervention is led by a health educator, who presents a video on the social acceptability of condom use, demonstrates proper condom-use techniques, and directs a role-playing session in which participants practice negotiating condom use with sexual partners. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Project SAFE: Sexual Awareness For Everyone An Intervention to Prevent STDs Among Minority Women

Investigators: Rochelle N. Shain, Reyes Ramos, Sondra T. Perdue, & Edward R. Newton

Developed for use in public health clinics, PROJECT S.A.F.E. is a three session cognitive-behavioral intervention designed to reduce STD infections among Hispanic and African American women. Sessions are designed to facilitate skill development to avoid infections while increasing awareness that STDs (including AIDS) disproportionately affect minority women. The intervention also helps build decision-making and communication skills, and encourages participants to set risk reduction goals. Participants gain mastery through role-play, group discussion, and behavioral skills exercises. The original evaluation, conducted in metropolitan San Antonio, TX, between 1993 and 1994, included 617 Hispanic and African American women. Participants were randomly assigned to either the intervention group (n=313) or the control group (n=304). Intervention group participants took part in three small-group sessions while their control group counterparts received standard STD counseling. Program participants showed a lower rate of infection as well as a better understanding of risky sexual behavior as compared to the control group. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Let's Chat

Investigators: Seth C. Kalichman

Let’s Chat is a four-session intervention designed for use with same-sex groups of adults with chronic mental illness. Based on the Information-Motivation-Behavioral (IMB) Skills Model, Let’s Chat addresses risk-reduction needs specific to persons with mental illness. In each of the 90-minute sessions, a team of two facilitators conveys important AIDS-prevention information, alternating lectures and video clips with role-play and group-participation activities. Participants discuss sexual pressure and coercion, practice negotiating condom use, and learn the proper method for using both male and female condoms. All four sessions place emphasis on clear, simple messages and useful skills practice. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Project SMART: AIDS Education for Drug Users in Short-Term Treatment

Investigators: Benjamin Lewis

Developed for use in short-term in-patient drug treatment programs, Project SMART includes two distinct interventions: a two-session informational intervention and a six-session enhanced intervention that includes both informational and behavioral skills training. A trained health educator delivers both interventions. In the informational intervention, participants receive an overview presentation about AIDS, complete homework, and watch condom-use and works-cleaning demonstrations. In the enhanced intervention, participants also participate in role-plays, watch video presentations, and practice condom-use and works-cleaning skills. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

California Survey of AIDS Knowledge, Attitudes & Behavior 1987

Investigators: State of California, Dept. of Health Services, Office of AIDS

The California Survey of AIDS Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavior: 1987 gathered data through a survey of California adults for the purpose of forecasting the course of the AIDS epidemic and planning risk reduction programs in the State of California. Augmented data collection was employed for three risk-groups: (1) gay-identifying men, (2) multiple/high-risk partner heterosexuals, and (3) recreational drug users. Interviews were conducted from October 4, 1987 through December 20, 1987. The 1988 follow-up study to the California Survey of AIDS Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavior: 1987 has been archived as Sociometrics AIDS/STI Data Archive Dataset 02. The 1987 data collection program had eight major objectives: To gather population-based data bearing on the size of the three primary AIDS risk groups in the State of California: homosexual/bisexual men, IV drug users, and multiple/high-risk partner heterosexuals; To determine the basic socioeconomic and other demographic characteristics of these risk groups in order to both enhance general understanding and allow for sufficient audience analysis to develop effective risk reduction interventions; To ascertain AIDS awareness and information levels among risk groups, as well as determining the impact of the epidemic to date on sexual and other risk behaviors; To determine the incidence of specific risk behaviors among the risk groups, including unsafe sex practices, IV drug usage, and needle-sharing; and collect baseline information that would enable behavior change over time to be monitored; To measure the degree to which existing risk reduction programs have penetrated risk group audiences in the State of California, which will be useful in evaluating the effectiveness of such programs; To collect data bearing on the design of future risk reduction programs, including questions related to message definition and the selection of appropriate communication channels; To determine AIDS awareness and knowledge levels among the general (low-risk) population of the state of California; and To gather population based data on utilization of the health care delivery system in California. Interviews were conducted from October 4, 1987 through December 20, 1987. The completion rate for interviews was 71%. Interviews were conducted in two stages. An initial 15-minute interview determined whether a respondent was a member of one or more of three AIDS high-risk groups: gay-identifying men, multiple/high-risk partner heterosexuals, or recreational drug users (not limited to intravenous drug use). If a respondent qualified as high-risk, an additional battery of questions, lasting about 20 minutes, was administered.

California Survey of AIDS Knowledge, Attitudes & Behavior: 1988

Investigators: State of California, Dept. of Health Services, Office of AIDS

The California Survey of AIDS Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavior: 1988 gathered data on 311 variables through a telephone survey of California adults for the purpose of forecasting the course of the AIDS epidemic and planning risk reduction programs in the State of California. The study consisted of 4,661 telephone interviews with a household probability sample of California adults aged 18 and over. Data collection employed stratified random sampling with over-sampling in geographic areas with identified high risk-group populations. Augmented data collection was employed for three risk-groups: (1) gay-identifying men, (2) multiple/high-risk partner heterosexuals, and (3) recreational drug users. Interviews were conducted from September 30, 1988 through December 13, 1988. Data collected in this survey permit comparisons to the California Survey of AIDS Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavior, (KABB), conducted in 1987, which has been archived as Sociometrics AIDS/STI Data Archive Dataset 01. However, the population stratification design employed in 1987 differed from that utilized in 1988, and some differences in results between the surveys may be attributable to this variation in methodology. The 1988 data collection program had four major objectives: To increase the number of risk group cases on whom reliable survey data existed in order to facilitate more detailed analysis of attitudinal and behavioral trends; To assess change or continuity in the incidence and distribution of AIDS risk behaviors over the year between the 1987 KABB survey and the 1988 KABB survey; To assess change or continuity in knowledge levels and attitudes of high-risk individuals between the two surveys; To measure the effectiveness of recent educational initiatives in California, including the national household mailing conducted by the Surgeon General of the United States.

Optimizing Partner Notification (OPeN)

Investigators: Tracey E. Wilson PhD, Matthew Hogben, PhD, Nicole Liddon, PhD, William M. McCormack, MD, Steve R. Rubin, & Michael A. Augenbraun, MD

OPEN, a clinic-based patient-centered program, promotes sexually transmitted infection (STI) partner notification in urban, minority populations with high rates of infection. A trained health educator delivers OPEN in 2 one-on-one counseling sessions. The first session (which lasts approximately 30 minutes) is delivered after the initial STI diagnosis, and the second session (which lasts about 10 minutes) is optional, and occurs roughly four weeks later, either in person or by phone. During the first session, the health educator engages in a discussion with the participant about the participant's risky sexual behaviors, and helps the participant to identify potential sexual partners needing notification of the STI. Then the participant and health educator develop a notification plan, and work on skills to improve sexual partner notification through role playing. At the end of the session the participant completes and signs a notification contract. During the second session, the health educator reviews with the participant any progress made on notification, and together they discuss any barriers encountered in notifying partners. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

ASSESS for Adolescent Risk Reduction

Investigators: Bradley O. Boekeloo

The ASSESS program provides tools to enhance risk-reduction communication between health care providers and teens while in a physician's office or clinic setting. A randomized controlled behavioral intervention trial of the program was conducted in the metropolitan Washington, DC area between 1995 and 1997. The trial involved 19 physicians at five primary care pediatric practices, and 215 teens who were randomly assigned to intervention (n=205) or control group (n=114) conditions. Control group teens received their usual health care examination. Intervention group teens listened to an audiotape and answered 11 risk-related questions. The physician used answer sheets, pamphlets, an icebreaker activity and role-playing strategies to encourage risk behavior discussion and practice risk refusal strategies. Participants were interviewed post-checkup to determine how many sexual health topics they had discussed with their provider. Telephone follow-up interviews were conducted at three months and nine months. Study findings showed that more intervention teens reported discussing sexual topics with their physicians than did control group teens. At three-month follow-up, more sexually active intervention group teens reported condom use than control group teens. While more vaginal intercourse was also reported in the intervention group than the control group, this was not true of overall sexual intercourse. At nine months, there were no group differences in sexual behavior; however, more signs of STDs were reported by the control than the intervention group. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.