Effect of a community-based culturally age-appropriate HIV/AIDS prevention program among adolescents in Bangkok

A community-based and informed culturally age-appropriate HIV/AIDS prevention program was designed using cognitive-behavioral theories to address the escalating HIV/AIDS epidemic among adolescents in Thailand. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the HIV/AIDS prevention program on HIV-related knowledge, beliefs and attitudes toward AIDS and condom use, self-efficacy, and HIV risk-taking behaviors among adolescents in Bangkok.

A pretest-posttest control group design was used to study communities located in Bangkok. Communities were randomly assigned into either experiment (n=5) or a control (n=5) conditions. Participants included 120 adolescents ages 12-22. The experiment group received a HIV/AIDS prevention program to increase knowledge and skills; the program was delivered by trained adult facilitators and consisted of 6 1-hour sessions. Adolescents completed a confidential self-administered questionnaire pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and at 3 and 6 months post-intervention. Pre-post intervention data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance.

Adolescents who received the program reported significantly greater HIV-related knowledge (F= 9.64, p= .002), more favorable attitudes toward AIDS and condom use (F= 7.68, p= .006), and reduced HIV/AIDS risk-taking behaviors (F= 15.32, p= .000). Adolescents in the intervention group did not differ from the control group in reporting HIV-preventive self-efficacy. Although this program appears to have some positive outcomes, more work is necessary to design specific approaches for HIV/AIDS prevention, especially for sexually-experienced adolescents. Findings from this study can be used to improve and further tailor existing or future program implementation, thus helping to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS among adolescents.