Religious groups as diffusers of HIV antibody testing and prevention messages

Using a quasi-experimental design, this study examined how delivering a brief training to volunteers in church congregations impacted (a) church volunteers' persistence in delivering HIV antibody testing messages over time and (b) HIV antibody testing behavior of the church volunteers themselves. Church volunteers attended a briefing regarding delivery of public health messages to others and the churches were assigned to either: (a) a trained condition, where 345 volunteers received an additional 3-hour training in diffusing HIV prevention messages, or (b) a comparison condition, where 199 volunteers received no HIV-specific training. Three months after the intervention, church volunteers in the HIV-trained condition reported delivering an HIV antibody testing and prevention message to more community members than volunteers in the comparison condition. Those in the HIV-trained condition also reported significantly higher levels of comfort and self-efficacy in delivering HIV prevention messages than volunteers in the comparison condition. However, the trained volunteers did not themselves get tested for HIV at higher rates than the untrained volunteers. Training church volunteers for community diffusion of HIV prevention messages is an efficient strategy for diffusing HIV messages. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc

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