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  • Title: Behavioral training and AIDS risk reduction: overcoming barriers to condom use.
    Author: Weisse CS, Turbiasz AA, Whitney DJ.
    Journal: AIDS Educ Prev; 1995 Feb; 7(1):50-9. PubMed ID: 7772456.
    Abstract:
    To assess the short- and long-term effects of an AIDS-prevention workshop on undergraduates' attitudes about condom use and AIDS, 31 participants and 31 controls were studied immediately after training sessions as well as three months later. The workshop was aimed at reducing embarrassment to purchase condoms, encouraging positive attitudes about condoms, and promoting knowledge about AIDS. To help students overcome their embarrassment over condom purchases, a behavioral intervention was included allowing students to make condom purchases at nearby drug stores. Results revealed that participants reported less embarrassment over condom purchases after training sessions and that this effect became even stronger over time. Knowledge about AIDS and positive attitudes about condoms also increased immediately after the workshop, but these changes did not persist. Results suggest that AIDS prevention workshops may lead to transient changes unless a specific skill (i.e., condom purchasing) is targeted via behavioral training. The findings of a case-control study conducted among college students suggest that social learning theory principles can reduce the embarrassment of young adults surrounding condom purchase. Surveyed were 62 male students (mean age, 19.4 years), 31 of whom were randomly assigned to receive the behavioral intervention. The intervention encompassed education on acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) prevention, experimentation with proper condom use techniques, and actual condom purchases from off-campus drugstores. Questionnaires concerning sexual practices, knowledge and attitudes about AIDS, and perceptions of condom use were administered to all students both at study entry and three months after study completion. At baseline, 88% of students reported ever-use of condoms and 60% identified condoms as their primary form of contraception; however, only 12.2% were using condoms at every act of intercourse. At the follow-up survey, students exposed to the experimental intervention reported an average of 12.0 condom purchases in the preceding three months compared to 7.8 purchases among controls. Moreover, 66.7% of cases compared to 60% of controls now cited condoms as their contraceptive method of choice. Subjects reported significantly less embarrassment about making condom purchases after the training session, and this effect became stronger with time; controls showed no changes in ratings of embarrassment. Although workshop participants expressed greater intentions to use condoms consistently in the future than controls and a more positive overall attitude toward this method, these changes diminished during the post-intervention period and, by the time of the three-month follow-up, cases and controls were similar on both measures. Similarly, workshop participants were more knowledgeable about AIDS after the intervention, but this change was also subject to erosion. It is concluded that purely educational interventions produce only short-term gains, while behavioral training aimed at imparting a specific skill can result in enduring behavioral change.
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