Study demonstrates successful HIV-prevention program for Latino youth
From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:
A culturally tailored HIV-prevention program can help reduce risky sexual behaviors among Latino adolescents, even a year after students attended the training, according to a study led by University of Michigan and University of Pennsylvania researchers.
Education is needed to reverse some disturbing trends among Latino teens, said U-M nursing professor Antonia M. Villarruel, who conducted the study with John B. Jemmott III, a professor at Penn's Annenberg School of Communication and Loretta S. Jemmott, a professor at Penn's School of Nursing.
Heterosexual contact is the major mode of HIV transmission among Latino adolescents.
Latino youth are more likely than whites to have sexual intercourse before the age of 13 and multiple sexual partners, according to the national Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System.
Villarruel, who is director of the Center for Health Promotion at the U-M School of Nursing, said there is growing evidence that behavioral training, which is culturally tailored and age-appropriate, is more effective with minority adolescents.
"This study is an important contribution in assisting Latino adolescents to decrease HIV sexual risk behavior," Villarruel said.
The first, a general health promotion intervention, presented Latino cultural values as an important context that supports positive health behaviors and focused on improving diet, exercise and physical activity, while reducing the use of cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.
The second intervention was the HIV-prevention program.
This program, based on several behavioral theories, emphasizes abstinence and condom use as culturally accepted and effective methods to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, such as HIV.
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