Amsterdam 2015
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| Abstract #2104 - Needs and interventions for school-aged populations | ||||
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Session: 19.6: Needs and interventions for school-aged populations (Parallel) on Wednesday @ 16.30-18.00 in C103 Chaired by Mark Orkin, Larry Brown Authors: Presenting Author: Prof Tonya Thurman - Tulane University & Highly Vulnerable Children Research Center, South Africa |
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| Additional Authors: | ||||
| Aim: Evidence-based approaches are needed to address the high levels of sexual risk behavior and associated HIV infection among orphaned and vulnerable adolescents. | ||||
| Method / Issue: Adolescents were recruited from a support program for HIV-affected families and randomly assigned to receive one of the following: 1) HIV prevention life skills 2) psychotherapy group sessions 3) both interventions or 4) no new interventions. With 95% retention, 1014 adolescents were interviewed three times over a 22 month period. Intent to treat analyses, applying multivariate difference-in-difference probit regressions, were performed separately for boys and girls to assess intervention impacts on sexual risk behaviors. | ||||
| Results / Comments: Exposure to a single intervention did not impact behaviors. Exposure to both interventions was associated with risk-reduction behaviors, but the outcomes varied by gender: boys reported fewer risky sexual partnerships (p = 0.05) and girls reported more consistent condom (p = 0.02). There was no difference in the likelihood of sexual debut for either gender. | ||||
| Discussion: Providing both psychological and behavioral interventions resulted in long term changes in sexual behavior that were not present when either intervention was provided in isolation. Multifaceted approaches for reducing sexual risk behaviors among vulnerable adolescents hold significant promise for mitigating the HIV epidemic among this priority population. | ||||
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