Behavioral intervention curbs STD infection in women

The study, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), examined the effect of a behavioral intervention on the subsequent sexually transmitted disease infection rate in more than 600 women being treated for an STD at health clinics in San Antonio, Texas.

Researchers randomly assigned half the 424 Mexican-American women and half the 193 African-American women to a three- to four-hour group counseling session once a week for three weeks. The session took into account women's cultural background and taught them skills to negotiate safer sex and encouraged them to commit to behavior change. The remaining women received standard counseling, generally a one-time 15-minute session.

A year after the intervention, the rate of infection with chlamydia and gonorrhea in women who participated in the intervention was significantly lower than in the control group (16.8 percent versus 26.9 percent). Also, the women in the intervention group were less likely to have more than one sex partner and more likely to use a condom during sexual encounters.

"This study confirms that sexually transmitted diseases can be prevented through behavioral intervention," said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, MD. "In the absence of effective vaccines, this type of intervention is our best hope to control the STD/HIV epidemic today."

Study authors were Rochelle Shain, Jeanna Piper, MD, Sodra Perdue, and Jane Dimmitt Champion, PhD, of the University of Texas Health Science Center; Fernando Guerra, MD, of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health Department; San Antonio consultant Reyes Ramos, PhD; and Edward Newton, MD, of East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C.

--B. Azar

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