Risk Reduction Counseling for STI Prevention - How it Works and How to Make it Work

Cornelis A Rietmeijer ^1*

¹ Denver Public Health, United States

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: krietmei{at}dhha.org.

Accepted 12 June 2006

Abstract

Prevention research in the past decade has demonstrated the efficacy of risk reduction counseling in reducing the risks for sexually transmitted infections (STI). The question currently facing providers of STI services is therefore not so much whether counseling should be part of the standard of STI care, but rather how this intervention can be implemented given the logistical and resource constraints of a busy practice setting. Following a brief historical introduction and an overview of risk reduction counseling models and their theoretical and scientific underpinnings, the focus of this paper will be on the extent to which individual prevention models have been adopted in different clinical settings, the impediments to implementation, and suggestions for improvement.

Key Words: Behavior Change, Counseling, Prevention, Risk Reduction, STI

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