The primary purpose of the project is to test the effectiveness of two different interventions on women's intent to become pregnant, use antiretroviral therapy, and their HIV/AIDS attitudes and beliefs. A secondary purpose is to examine correlates of reproductive decision making and intentions to use antiretroviral therapy among African American women with HIV who are at risk for pregnancy. The proposed sample will be 270 HIV-infected African American women aged 18-44 years who are at risk for pregnancy and who reside in two southern states. The women will be recruited from various community-based sites and clinics serving both rural and urban populations. The study will include face to face interviews using a modified health belief conceptual framework to assess specific correlates such as family structure, cognitive perceptions, HIV beliefs, intrapersonal variables, and health status. Prior experience with the health care system will also be addressed. The overall study will be three years in length with a quasi-experimental and descriptive correlational design with repeated measures. Interventions will be videotape and face-to-face delivery with peer discussion groups of peer education. The primary purposed hypotheses are that significant differences exist in HIV infected African American women's intent to become pregnant, use antiretroviral therapy, and in their HIV attitudes and beliefs within the proposed treatment groups and among treatment groups after the intervention when compared to baseline. The conceptual framework guiding this study is the modified Health Belief Model.
