Reducing HIV misconceptions and increasing implementation intentions to use condoms for high-risk adults in a drug diversion program

In the United States approximately 36% of HIV cases are directly or indirectly related to substance abuse. Substance abusers are high-risk due to risky sexual behaviors and drug use. The goal was to design a 1-hour intervention to reduce HIV misconceptions while increasing implementation intentions to use condoms in 143 participants in drug diversion programs in Southern California. This intervention utilized a pre-post design. The waitlist-control group received the HIV survey first and competed a neutral survey as the post-test. The experimental group completed the neutral survey first and the HIV survey as the post-test. The HIV survey was comprised of 9 common misconceptions and 4 scales related to implementation intentions. It was expected that the experimental group would report fewer misconceptions and more implementation intentions to use condoms than the waitlist-control group. Results indicated that the experimental group was less likely to believe 4 of the 9 misconceptions. In addition, the experimental group was more likely than the waitlist-control group to report more implementation intentions to use condoms with their main and causal partners. Further the experimental group was more likely to report more implementation intentions for using condoms compared to the waitlist-control. There were no significant differences for the imagery scale. This intervention is unique since it indicates that short HIV interventions can be affective for reducing misconceptions and increasing implementation intentions to use condoms in a high-risk population. Further, it indicates that the new implementation intention measures may be a useful for future studies.