 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Jichuan Wang, PhD, Harvey Siegal, PhD, Russel Falck, MA, and Robert Carlson, PhD. Community Health, Wright State University, 3640 Colonel Glenn Hwy, Dayton, OH 45435, 937 775-2066, jichuan.wang@wright.edu
Research has found that STD patients in China were practicing HIV high risk sex behaviors. However, little was known about why STD patients rarely used condoms to prevent themselves from HIV infection. This study attempts to explore the role of social cognitive beliefs in understanding the dynamics of sexual risk behavior among Chinese STD patients. Social cognitive outcome expectancy and self-efficacy were employed to measure beliefs about the consequences of condoms use and the degree of confidence or capability in various aspects of condom use among STD patients in China. The findings of this study show that Chinese STD patients had limited positive outcome expectancy and self-efficacy beliefs regarding condom use. Nonetheless, significant positive associations were found between most subscales of social cognitive beliefs and frequency of condom use. In general, STD patients who had more positive outcome expectancy and greater self-efficacy were more likely to use condoms in any circumstances when they had sex. These findings may help explain why STD patients in China rarely used condoms, and imply that improvement of outcome expectancy and self-efficacy of condom use may help STD patients significantly increase their condom use. Our findings suggest that incorporating outcome expectancy and self-efficacy of condom use into HIV interventions may be beneficial to sex risk behavior reduction among the STD patients in China.
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.