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Clinical Trial
. 2004 Jul;94(7):1165-73.
doi: 10.2105/ajph.94.7.1165.

Efficacy of a woman-focused intervention to reduce HIV risk and increase self-sufficiency among African American crack abusers

Wendee M Wechsberg  1 , Wendy K K Lam, William A Zule, Georgiy Bobashev
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Efficacy of a woman-focused intervention to reduce HIV risk and increase self-sufficiency among African American crack abusers

Wendee M Wechsberg et al. Am J Public Health. 2004 Jul.

Abstract

Objectives: This study compares 3- and 6-month outcomes of a woman-focused HIV intervention for crack abusers, a revised National Institute on Drug Abuse standard intervention, and a control group.

Methods: Out-of-drug-treatment African American women (n = 620) who use crack participated in a randomized field experiment. Risk behavior, employment, and housing status were assessed with linear and logistic regression.

Results: All groups significantly reduced crack use and high-risk sex at each follow-up, but only woman-focused intervention participants consistently improved employment and housing status. Compared with control subjects at 6 months, woman-focused intervention participants were least likely to engage in unprotected sex; revised standard intervention women reported greatest reductions in crack use.

Conclusions: A woman-focused intervention can successfully reduce risk and facilitate employment and housing and may effectively reduce the frequency of unprotected sex in the longer term.

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References

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