The efficacy of behavioral interventions in reducing HIV risk sex behaviors and incident sexually transmitted disease in black and Hispanic sexually transmitted disease clinic patients in the United States: a meta-analytic review

Abstract

Objectives: Interventions targeting sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic patients provide an important opportunity to modify high-risk sex behaviors related to HIV/STD transmission. Identifying efficacious interventions for blacks and Hispanics is urgently needed because these 2 groups are disproportionately affected by the HIV/STD epidemics.

Goal: This meta-analysis evaluates the efficacy of behavioral interventions in reducing unprotected sex and incident STD among black and Hispanic STD clinic patients.

Study design: Comprehensive searches, including electronic databases (1988-2004), hand searches of journals (January 2004 to June 2005), reference lists of articles, and contacts with researchers, identified 18 randomized, controlled trials meeting the selection criteria.

Results: Interventions significantly reduced unprotected sex (odds ratio [OR] = 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.68-0.87; 14 trials; N = 11,590) and incident STD (OR = 0.85; 95% CI = 0.73-0.998; 13 trials; N = 16,172).

Conclusions: Behavioral interventions provide an efficacious means of HIV/STD prevention for blacks and Hispanics who attend STD clinics.