Partnership for Health

An Evidence-Based Practice

Description

The goal of Partnership for Health is to use regular doctor visits as a forum to reach HIV-positive patients and increase their knowledge, skills, and motivations to practice safer sex. The program accomplishes these goals by using message framing, repetition, and reinforcement.

Partnership for Health is delivered by providers to HIV-positive patients in HIV outpatient clinics. Waiting room posters and brochures are used to reinforce the program's main message of prevention. The actual program is implemented as a 3- to 5- minute conversation between the patient and provider during a routine visit, during which time the provider discusses protection, partner protection, and disclosure of HIV serostatus.

Goal / Mission

The goal of Partnership for Health is to reach HIV positive patients during regular doctor visits and increase their knowledge, skills, and motivations to practice safer sex.

Impact

Brief provider counseling emphasizing the negative consequences of unsafe sex can reduce HIV transmission behaviors in HIV-positive patients presenting with risky behavioral profiles.

Results / Accomplishments

Six HIV clinics in California implemented the intervention. Two clinics used a loss-framed approach (negative consequences of unsafe sex), two used a gain-framed approach (positive consequences of safer sex), and two served as controls. The authors found that patients who had received the loss-framed messages and who had two or more sex partners at baseline were significantly less likely to report having unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse at follow-up (p<0.01) when compared to the other two groups.

About this Promising Practice

Organization(s)
USC Partnership for Health
Primary Contact
Jean Richardson
Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine - USC
1441 Eastlake Ave, MS 9175
Los Angeles, CA 90033
(323) 865-0385
jeanr@usc.edu
Topics
Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases
Health / Prevention & Safety
Organization(s)
USC Partnership for Health
Source
CDC Effective Interventions
Date of publication
2004
Date of implementation
1999
Location
California
For more details
Additional Audience
HIV-positive individuals