Background Findings have shown that adherence to secondary prevention information is low among people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHAs) in Sub Saharan Africa including Nigeria. However, the effectiveness of Psycho-education has not been fully exploited. The Study therefore investigated the involvement of PLWHAs in sexual risk behaviour and the effectiveness of Psycho-education intervention on adherence to secondary prevention among PLWHAs in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Methods The study was conducted in two phases, first phase utilised ex-post facto design. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 548 (Males = 154; Females = 394) participants receiving anti-retroviral therapies in President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief University College Hospital, Ibadan after securing ethical approval, (Mean age of 39.5 years SD = 9.334 years). Quantitative data were collected from participants through standardised questionnaire. Pre-test, post-test quasi experimental control group design was utilised for the second phase. Fifty participants were randomly selected from those who reported involvement in sexual risk behaviour in phase one and randomly assigned to Psycho-education group and control group.

Results Results revealed that; 70 representing 12.8% have engaged in sexual risk behaviour by having sex with irregular partners without using condom. 66 representing 12% have had sex with more than one partner, 72 representing 13.1% have had sex with prostitute. Further analysis revealed that 185 representing 33.8% have had sexually transmitted infections. Finding from second stage which utilised Psycho-education intervention technique revealed that knowledge of secondary prevention has increased among the treatment group compare to control group {F (5, 149) = 11.943: p < 0.001} at follow up conducted eight weeks after intervention.

Conclusion From this study, it is evident that People living with HIV & AIDS still engage in Sexual risk behaviour which negatively impact on treatment outcomes and Psycho-education intervention technique was found efficacious in addressing sexual risk behaviour among people living with HIV.