|
Researchers have commence that a changed counseling intervention that includes an ramble of the pledge of alcohol use in sexual contexts may have an pow on HIV prevention by reducing sexual risk behaviours. The study is published in the April 15th edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. Considerable evidence exists that alcohol use contributes to the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV.
In townships in Cape Town, South Africa, which are heavily pretended by HIV, more than 85% of the places where humans amass farther femininity gang serve alcohol. In Cape Town, 42% of masculinity and 12% of women recipient STI clinic services bill drinking before sex, and the degree of alcohol free lunch before manliness jumps to 61% among STI clinic patients who are intricate drinkers, notes Seth Kalichman, from the University of Connecticut, USA, who conducted the study. In edict to meeting place on the accompany between alcohol, STIs, and HIV, the US and South African tandem of researchers sought to see about the strength on sexual stake behaviours and alcohol use of a single brief counseling intervention surrounding HIV and alcohol. In a randomised, controlled trial, 143 attendees at an STI clinic in Cape Town who used alcohol were prone a 60-minute practical counseling assemblage that focused on HIV and alcohol risk, or a 20-minute educational oversee intervention, consisting of HIV score alone. The 60-minute incursion included the informational aspect of the direct condition, virginity a motivational element based on the World Health Organization's make good alcohol counseling model, and someday a skills-building component focused on behavioral self-management and sexual communication. Baseline wisdom was unflappable by audio computer-assisted interviewing. Follow-up sessions were conducted at three and six months abutting the offense or direct condition. Participants were questioned about their contain of sexual trio and condom use in the past month, as well as alcohol and other drug use. Several short questionnaires were also administered, to assess understanding of HIV risk and prevention, HIV-related stigma, intentions of behaviour change, risk-reduction self-efficacy, and expectations of alcohol use. Overall, the pragmatic endorsement assignation was associated with more than a 25% upping in condom extras and a 65% abbreviation in unprotected sex over the 6-month follow-up period, with risk reduction significantly greater for the experimental condition than for the control condition at both follow-ups. Condom use at last intercourse exceeded 95% at each follow-up for the experimental condition. Alcohol use in sexual contexts and expectancies that alcohol enhances sexual experiences were also significantly lower for the experimental condition at the three-month follow-up. Other indicators, including HIV knowledge and stigmas, were not significantly different between the groups. The authors concern that it isnt wholly inherent to generalise these findings to single settings, particularly through of the incorporate of bodies who refused to participate and the number lost to follow-up, although retention within the trial was 73% at six months. Other limitations of the study included the small proportion of female participants, the lack of blinding to the intervention, and the use of self-report indicators alone as outcome measures. Moreover, the pair questions whether the differences could be rightful solely to the other equivalent of recommendation break liable to the intervention-group participants. Finally, they note the lack of sustainability of the alcohol outcomes suggests that the sexual risk reduction behaviour changes may also deteriorate over time and indicates the need for more intensive alcohol risk reduction intervention components and maintenance intervention strategies. Risk contraction advising is relatively inexpensive when delivered to mortals at unequaled wager and is available now for benediction in clinical settings, the tally notes. Thus, a similar brief intervention could be widely disseminated via such clinics, which serve people at highest risk of HIV infection. This skirmish may be particularly appurtenant owing to it can be delivered by non-professional counsellors with scant training, flap the authors, noting consistent recommendation could bolster other prevention strategies such as microbicide use. Changing sexual gamble behaviours in the mammoth describe among public at transcendent wager requires multilevel blitzkrieg strategies that address individual behaviour change and also change the behavioural context and social milieu, the authors conclude. Research is urgently needed on community-level interventions for supporting risk reduction in drinking places such as shebeens and taverns, in parallel with risk reduction counselling for high-risk drinkers in southern Africa, they suggest. |
