AIDS education and prevention : official publication of the International Society for AIDS Education
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This study evaluated predictors of risky and safer behavior in a sample of low-income African American adolescents, assessed their perceptions of the risk associated with their sexual behavior, and examined differences between adolescents who used condoms consistently, inconsistently, or engaged only in unprotected intercourse. African American adolescents (N = 312) completed measures related to AIDS knowledge, frequency of condom use, attitudes toward condoms, and sexual behavior over the preceding 2 months. Multiple regression analyses for the sexually active youths (N = 114) revealed that lower self-efficacy, higher perceived risk, and male gender were associated with high-risk behavior. ⋯ Regardless of their behavior, the adolescents generally did not perceive themselves to be a risk for HIV infection. The findings suggest that precautionary practices (condom use) and high-risk behavior (unprotected sex with multiple partners) may have different correlates. In addition, the data indicate that theoretical models developed with homosexual male populations may also be generalizable to African American adolescents' sexual behavior.
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A family-oriented camping program for caregivers of children who are HIV infected is described. Major goals of the camping program consisted of: (1) providing respite care to mother and child, and, (2) training health care and mental health workers to provide special services, emphasizing the mental health needs of this population.
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Comparative Study
Differences between Asian-American and white American dentists in attitudes toward treatment of HIV-positive patients.
In a survey of Asian (n = 115) versus white (Caucasian) (n = 920) dentists practicing in two boroughs of New York City, Asian dentists expressed significantly more negative attitudes toward and more unwillingness to treat HIV-positive patients than did white dentists. Despite this consistent pattern across most survey items, the two groups were more similar regarding perceptions of professional obligation and their colleague's willingness to treat those with HIV. In an examination of the influence of acculturation processes on these attitudes, a comparison of attitude differences among the subgroup of Asian dentists receiving their dental education in the United States versus abroad showed some differences, with Asian dentists educated outside the United States expressing somewhat more negative attitudes. As Asian Americans become increasingly represented among practicing dentists in the United States, their relative unwillingness to treat HIV-positive patients may have an impact on access to oral health care among HIV-positive persons living in the United States.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Psychoeducational group approach: HIV risk reduction in drug users.
In two trials of a small-group AIDS prevention approach, 50 methadone maintenance patients and 98 heroin abusers in outpatient detoxification were randomly assigned to experimental or comparison conditions. Experimental condition subjects received a 6-hour, small-group intervention that aimed to improve their knowledge and attitudes about AIDS, skills in syringe sterilization and condom use, and changing high-risk needle use and sexual behaviors. ⋯ Although outpatient detoxification subjects displayed considerably more risk behaviors at study outset, the intervention's effect appeared to be more robust in methadone maintenance patients. The relative lack of impact on subjects' behaviors points out that more potent, sustained interventions need to be developed to slow the spread of HIV among injecting drug users.
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This paper suggests that continued high-risk behavior is the result of the heuristics used to make judgments under uncertainty, and that the same heuristics may be mobilized to increase the use of safer-sex practices. In order to explain why it is that individuals fail to make effective use of the information they may have concerning rates of infection, consequences of infection and their own at-risk status, theory and research in several areas will be considered. ⋯ It is worth reminding ourselves that public health campaigns in other areas have led to changes in behavior. Reasoning, even with its biases, is still the route by which we make decisions, most of them effective and self-protective.