Computerized HIV/Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Prevention Program

The proposed study will involve the development and pilot testing of an interactive
computerized tailored intervention program for HIV/STI prevention among at-risk
heterosexually active African-American STI clinic patients, aged 18-29. The
Attitude-Social-Influence Efficacy model will serve as a conceptual foundation for the
intervention and tailored feedback, which will assess and give feedback to participants
separately for main/steady and other/casual partners. Individual modules will be developed
for key theoretical concepts and subsequently tied together into an integrated system. The
tailored feedback will additionally be enhanced by crafting intervention messages to be high
in message sensation value and by developing interactive intervention activities for
skill-building, which will be guided by both Social Cognitive Theory and skills training
principles. The computerized intervention will be developed and guided using data collected
from the target audience to ensure an empirically-based approach to tailoring. The
intervention will also be developed with input from the target audience in order to maximize
the appropriateness and persuasiveness of the feedback and the program, including
interactive components. The final year of the project will entail a pilot test of the
intervention in order to gather preliminary data on the acceptability and efficacy of such
an intervention for increasing safer sexual behaviors among at-risk heterosexually active
African-Americans.

The specific aims of the study are: 1) to develop tailored feedback on HIV/STI prevention
based on the ASE model, including condom attitudes, social influences, self-efficacy
including communication / negotiation skills, partner and behavioral risk, correct condom
use, and condom stages of change; 2) to enhance the delivery of the tailored messages using
sensation-seeking targeting (SENTAR) and skill-building using interactive activities guided
by Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and skills training principles; 3) to tie the individual
theoretical modules together and develop a computerized intervention program for HIV/STI
prevention, which provides tailored risk reduction messages to participants based upon an
assessment of participant characteristics; 4) to develop empirically sound cutpoints,
specific to the target audience, to guide the message tailoring; and 5) in a wait-list
control group design, to pilot test the intervention for acceptability and efficacy in
increasing condom use with main and casual partners among at-risk heterosexually active
African-Americans, relative to a "usual care" comparison condition.

Inclusion Criteria:

- African American

- Aged 18-29

- Heterosexually active in past 3 months

- NOT knowingly HIV positive

- Not pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant/impregnating partner in next 3 months

- Client of the STI clinic where study is being conducted

- Not currently enrolled in another condom study at the clinic

Exclusion Criteria:

- None