View clinical trials related to Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
Filter by:The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the POWER Through Choices (PTC) curriculum in increasing contraceptive use and delaying sexual initiation among youth living in group foster care homes.
Young African-American women who report a higher frequency of alcohol use have particularly higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) sex behaviors. Unfortunately, there are no evidence-based HIV interventions designed to be gender- and culturally-appropriate for this population. To address this, the investigators propose to add to the CDC-defined evidence-based intervention (DEBI), Horizons, a new intervention form, Group Motivational Enhancement Therapy (GMET), which has shown promise in reducing alcohol use and alcohol-related HIV risk-taking. To test how effective the combined Horizons+GMET alcohol-specific portion is, it will be evaluated with a time equivalent Horizons+attention control general health promotion (GHP) portion focusing on nutrition health promotion, and to an enhanced standard-of-care program. In this study, 600 young African American women, 18-24 years of age, who report 3 or more occasions where they drank alcohol in the past 90 days will be recruited to complete a four-part baseline assessment consisting of: 1. an audio computer assisted self interview (ACASI), 2. videotaped communication role plays to objectively measure communication skill ability (subsample), 3. provide a vaginal specimen to test for STDs and 4. Provide a urine pregnancy screen. After participants complete their baseline assessment, they will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1. Horizons+GMET alcohol-specific condition, 2. a time-equivalent Horizons+GHP condition, or 3. an enhanced standard-of-care control condition. The GMET alcohol-specific component has shown to be effective in influencing several alcohol-specific concepts (attitudes, norms, self-efficacy) and reducing sexual risk-taking among culturally-diverse high-risk youth. The GMET alcohol-specific module was designed to increase woman's awareness of the unfavorable effects of alcohol on themselves, their sexual decision-making, and their male partner and teaches women strategies to reduce the possibility of engaging in sex under the influence of alcohol. In addition, the GMET alcohol-specific module provides skills training needed to effectively talk about sexual intentions to use condoms and/or refuse risky sex when they or their male sex partner has been using alcohol. After completing one of the three conditions, participants will complete a brief ACASI posttest to evaluate immediate changes in hypothesized social and psychological mediators of safer sex and alcohol use. Participants will also return to complete follow-up assessments at 3, 6, 9, and 12-months after their intervention. If the Horizons+GMET intervention is observed to be effective, investigators will work closely with the CDC DEBI program to help distribute the intervention to public health agencies and community based organizations (CBOs).
The purpose of this study is to determine rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among African American women who have sex with women (AAWSW). In addition, the study is interested in better understanding the types of risk behaviors that place AAWSW at risk for STIs. The investigators hypothesis is that AAWSW experience high rates of STIs, similar to heterosexual African American women. Knowledge gained from this study will guide development of interventions to reduce women's risk for these types of infections and will improve how AAWSW are screened for STIs.
People who present repeatedly at Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) clinics represent a key population for HIV prevention intervention research. Despite their heightened risk there is an absence of empirical research on strategies to intervene with repeat STI. Some STI-clinic based behavioral HIV prevention studies, focusing on the general STI patient population, have found that risk reduction interventions can reduce the incidence of a subsequent STI. Studies have shown that expedited treatment for STI patients' partners can reduce subsequent STI and enhancing partner notification can reduce risk for repeat infection. Those who go on to experience repeat infections, after they are provided with risk reduction services, are the focus of this project. Repeat STI literature noted, there have been no intervention studies conducted to lower STI/HIV risk specifically among people who are presenting with repeat STI. The proposed study develops a risk reduction intervention designed for STI repeaters and evaluates the efficacy of this intervention and its cost-effectiveness. The investigators expect that the intervention for STI repeaters will be significantly more effective than standard care with regard to reducing participants' STI/HIV risks. However, even a highly-effective intervention is unlikely to be adopted if the outcomes come at a high cost. Administrators need to know how effective a "new" intervention is, but also if it is more cost-effective than the program it replaces. Cost-effectiveness information also is critical to justify the "new" intervention to prevention funders (Milwaukee Department of Health), who are concerned not only with costs and effects, but also with the tradeoff between them. The proposed study will provide the comprehensive level of information about intervention effects and cost-effectiveness required by administrators and resource allocation decision makers to determine whether or not to fund or implement the intervention. Hypothesis 1. The investigators expect a greater reduction in unprotected vaginal and anal intercourse in the prevention case management compared to the standard care condition. Hypothesis 2. The hypothesis that the case management group will have a lower STI re-infection rate compared to the standard care group will be tested using each participant's repeat STI status over the 12 month FU period.
This study compares the effects of standard HIV test, treat and retain (TTR) practices with TTR plus a woman-focused enhanced strategy--Women's Health CoOp (WHC+) intervention) targeting hard-to-reach and vulnerable alcohol and other drug (AOD)-using women to determine if the WHC+ intervention is more efficacious than TTR alone in reducing HIV risk behavior. Additionally, the study will determine whether HIV positive women in the WHC+ arm are more likely to follow through with referrals for further medical evaluation and linkages to HIV treatment and other care than women in the TTR arm.
Sub-Saharan Africa has about 10% of the world's population, but was home to more than 60% of all people living with HIV in 2003. South Africa continues to have the largest number of people living with HIV in the world, and as in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, heterosexual exposure is the primary HIV transmission category. Worldwide, efforts to stem the spread of HIV among heterosexuals have stressed the impact of HIV on women. Oft-cited statistics indicate that about half of all people living with HIV are women. The strategies typically offered to address the impact of HIV on women are interventions with women. An alternative approach to addressing women's risk of heterosexual transmission of HIV, one that would be an important complement to the predominant approach, is focusing on men. By reducing sexual risk behavior of men, it should be possible to reduce rates of HIV in both men and women. The rates in men would decline because they are the recipients of the intervention; rates in women would decline because they have sex with men. Interventions aimed at men could take into account the power that men have in sexual decision-making and risk taking. However, whether one considers the US literature or the international literature, few randomized controlled trials of HIV/STD risk-reduction interventions have focused on heterosexual men. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to develop and test the efficacy of an intervention to curb HIV/STD risk-associated behavior in South African men who have sex with women. A cluster-randomized controlled trial design will be used to reduce the potential for contamination between treatment arms that would be present if individuals were randomized. An attention control group will be used to control for Hawthorne effects, special attention, and group interaction. Matched pairs of neighborhoods in Black townships in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa similar on key characteristics will be created, 22 pairs will be randomly selected, and men will be recruited. One neighborhood in each pair will be randomly assigned to each of the 2 study arms. We hypothesized that men who receive a culturally appropriate theory-based HIV/STD risk-reduction intervention will be more likely to report consistently using condoms during intercourse in the 12-month post intervention period than will men who receive an attention-control intervention, adjusting for baseline condom use.
The purpose of this study is to if a brief motivational intervention, compared to health education sessions, reduces alcohol and marijuana use and is related to fewer sexually transmitted infections (STI)in emerging adults who are engaging in alcohol and marijuana use.
This study is comparing the impact of two teen pregnancy prevention interventions, Reducing the Risk and Love Note with a non-related training on community building to determine which is most effective for which participants in delaying sexual initiation, enhancing use of condoms and other forms of birth control, decreasing sexually transmitted diseases and decreasing the number of pregnancies. The participants were 1450 youth between the ages of 14 and 19 including those from poor urban settings, those from immigrant and refugee families and those from the foster care system. Both girls and boys were be in the study. The investigators predict that girls, immigrants and refugees and foster youth will have better outcomes when participating in Love Notes, a program focused on healthy relationship formation and maintenance as a frame for how to manage the sexual aspect of relationships while boys and urban youth will have better outcomes when participating in Reducing the Risk. Both groups will have better outcomes than those in the control condition.
The study has the following primary aims: (1) to test whether participants assigned to CNU (a 7-session, manualized intervention entitled "Connect 'n Unite") engage in lower HIV/STI behavioral risk compared to participants assigned to WP (a wellness promotion attention control condition); (2) to test whether participants assigned to CNU have lower cumulative incidence of STIs-chlamydia and gonorrhea-confirmed via biological assay compared to participants assigned to WP; and (3) to test whether participants assigned to CNU engage in less drug use compared to participants assigned to WP.
The purpose of this Stage II clinical trial is to test the efficacy of a culturally sensitive, cognitive-behavioral intervention to reduce sexual risk behavior among minority adolescents for prevention of sexually transmitted infection (STI/HIV), unintended pregnancy and abuse by changing high-risk sexual behaviors, decreasing substance use and encouraging contraceptive use. Its primary goal is to expand risk-reduction interventions created in previous studies to further increase intervention efficacy for this particularly vulnerable, high-risk group. An adolescent intervention has been created and pilot tested in developmental studies. Results indicated reductions in substance use, risk behaviors, unintended pregnancy, STI and abuse without reports of adverse outcomes. Specific aims of the current study include: 1) To obtain a more in-depth understanding of configurations of psychosocial and situational factors associated with high-risk sexual behavior, substance use, STI/HIV and contraceptive use among abused minority adolescent women with STI; 2) To implement a controlled randomized trial of a cognitive behavioral risk-reduction intervention consisting of 2 small group sessions, 2 individual counseling and 3 support groups for this group; 3) To evaluate the effects of the adolescent intervention model versus enhanced counseling for this group on AIDS Risk Reduction Model (ARRM)-related constructs, high-risk sexual behavior, substance use, abuse recurrence, contraceptive use, unintended pregnancy and STI/HIV at 6 and 12 months follow-up. Participants will include a convenience sample of 600 Mexican-and African American adolescent women, aged 14-18 years with a history of sexual or physical abuse and current STI.