Yale University

Effectiveness of Couple-Based HIV Counseling and Testing for Women Substance Users and Their Primary Male Partners: A Randomized Trial.

TitleEffectiveness of Couple-Based HIV Counseling and Testing for Women Substance Users and Their Primary Male Partners: A Randomized Trial.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2013
AuthorsMcMahon, James M., Stephanie Tortu, Enrique R. Pouget, Leilani Torres, William Rodriguez, and Rahul Hamid
JournalAdvances in preventive medicine
Volume2013
Pagination286207
Date Published2013
ISSN2090-3480
AbstractA randomized trial was conducted to test the effectiveness of couple-based HIV counseling and testing (CB-HIV-CT) and women-only relationship-focused HIV counseling and testing (WRF-HIV-CT) in reducing HIV risk compared to the National Institute on Drug Abuse HIV-CT standard intervention. Substance using HIV-negative women and their primary heterosexual partner (N = 330 couples) were randomized to 1 of the 3 interventions. Follow-up assessments measuring HIV risk behaviors and other relevant variables were conducted at 3- and 9-months postintervention. Repeated measures generalized linear mixed model analysis was used to assess treatment effects. A significant reduction in HIV risk was observed over the 9-month assessment in the CB-HIV-CT group compared to that of the control group (b = -0.51, t[527] = -3.20, P = 0.002) and compared to that of the WRF-HIV-CT group (b = -0.34, t[527] = -2.07, P = 0.04), but no significant difference was observed between WRF-HIV-CT and controls (b = -0.17, t[527] = -1.09, P = 0.28). A brief couple-based HIV counseling and testing intervention designed to address both drug-related and sexual risk behaviors among substance using women and their primary male partners was shown to be more effective at reducing overall HIV risk compared to a standard HIV-CT intervention in an urban setting.
DOI10.1521/aeap.2013.25.1.14
Alternate JournalAdv Prev Med

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