Original articleThe Impact of Community-Based Sexually Transmitted Infection Screening Results on Sexual Risk Behaviors of African American Adolescents
Section snippets
Study design
Data analyzed in this study are part of project iMPPACS (iMPPACS is the acronym developed for the multi-site project “in Macon, Providence, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Columbia, and Syracuse), a multisite intervention that combined two levels of HIV/STI prevention programming targeted to African American adolescents: face-to-face small group counseling sessions and a community-wide mass media campaign. As part of the assessment plan, all participants were also tested for three STIs at the baseline
Results
Participants' ages ranged from 14 to 17 (M = 15.6, standard deviation = 1.16; 52% female). At baseline, 42 (6.6%) tested positive for at least one STI. Table 1 shows that females were more likely than males to test STI-positive and that the entire sample exhibited ample risk behavior: 20% of the adolescents reported multiple vaginal sex partners and 25% reported unprotected vaginal and/or anal sex in the last 3 months. Those testing STI-positive were more likely (p < .01) to report multiple vaginal
Discussion
The STI/HIV epidemic affects African American adolescents disproportionately and requires intervention efforts at the community and individual level. Community-based STI screening and counseling has the potential to address structural barriers that African Americans confront and might also serve to detect and avert the spread of asymptomatic STIs [13]. From an individual's perspective, an STI-positive diagnosis with subsequent medical care and counseling has the potential to be a powerful
Conclusions
Testing positive for an STI through community-based screening and receiving standard of care treatment and counseling can lead to a reduction in number of sex partners and reduction in unprotected sex. Screening is, however, less likely to benefit STI-negative adolescents. This is problematic because receiving a negative test result is not an indication of reduced risk for infection. Indeed, STI-negative adolescents in this study reported substantial unprotected sex and multiple partners at
Acknowledgments
The data stem from a project funded by the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Office on AIDS. This study was conducted through the iMPPACS network supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health (Pim Brouwers, Project Officer) at the following sites and local contributors: Columbia, SC (MH66802, Robert Valois (PI), Naomi Farber, Andure Walker); Macon, GA (MH66807, Ralph DiClemente (PI), Gina Wingood, Laura Salazar, Rachel Joseph, Delia Lang; Angela Caliendo); Philadelphia, PA
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There are no financial conflicts of interest in relation to this study.
The data in this study stem from a project funded by the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Office on AIDS. The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIMH.