SAN FRANCISCO, March 25 (UPI) -- Delivering HIV prevention services to people living with HIV in clinical settings can sharply reduce their sexual risk behaviors, U.S. researchers found.
Lead author Janet J. Myers of the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California, San Francisco, said when HIV patients received risk assessment prevention counseling from their clinical providers, they showed a consistent decline in risky behavior during the 12-month study period. For example, researchers saw HIV patients cut almost in half their sexual risk behaviors -- unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse with either an HIV-negative partner or one whose status was unknown.
HIV patients receiving services from health educators, social workers or peer educators also significantly reduced risk behaviors at six months, but not at 12 months, the study said.
The roughly 3,500 HIV-positive trial participants were diverse -- half of the participants were men who have sex with men, 30 percent were women and 20 percent were heterosexual men. The research was conducted at 13 demonstration sites in 12 states and included sites in major urban centers and sites in smaller cities.
The findings are published in online edition of the journal AIDS and Behavior.
