Study finds peer education is an effective prevention method
Aidslink Eastern Central and Southern Africa 1998(49): 15
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0856-3969 PMID: 12293302 Document Number: 271988
A comparative study conducted among factory workers in Zimbabwe demonstrated that peer education has the potential to reduce the incidence of HIV. This study, sponsored by the University of Zimbabwe in collaboration with Stanford University (US), was the first evaluation of a health education strategy to use HIV infection as the measure of effectiveness. HIV incidence rates decreased significantly more in the factories where peer education was offered than in those without such a program. Workers at all factories were offered HIV testing and counseling--interventions associated with behavioral change in other studies. Thus, the effect of peer education on HIV incidence was over and above the effects of these other interventions. Another survey, conducted among factory workers in Harare, found that early-stage, effective treatment of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) was associated with significant decreases in HIV incidence. Workers with a history of an STD were 5 times as likely as their co-workers without such a history to be HIV-positive. Risk factors for STD history included single marital status, contact with prostitutes, and multiple sex partners. These factory-based studies suggest the effectiveness of an HIV/AIDS prevention strategy based on peer-led health education, condom distribution at the workplace, and aggressive treatment of STDs.