Previous work has demonstrated that alcohol use is associated with high-risk sexual activity and other substance abuse.
The aims of this project are: (1) Recruit 720 out-of-treatment female problem drinkers, 18 to 40 years of age, for a randomized intervention trial aimed at reducing alcohol-related high risk sexual behaviors. (2) Administer a theory based peer-delivered gender and culturally-relevant intervention that is a modification of an earlier successful intervention used by these investigators with injectors and crack cocaine users. Women are randomly assigned to a standard intervention (HIV testing plus counseling), or to a standard intervention plus 4 2-hour risk reduction interventions conducted by both peers and allied health professionals. (3) Assess the effectiveness of the interventions in reducing high risk behaviors at 4 and 8 months. Cost effectiveness will also be evaluated. The characteristics of those who maintained a low risk, maintained a high risk, stopped their risky behavior, increased their risk, or reduced their risk will be assessed, where risk is defined as problem drinking, drinking in situations that could be hazardous (e.g. before or during sexual activity), unprotected sexual activity, and use of other substances. Other measures that affect behavior change and HIV incidence will be evaluated such as symptoms of depression, PTSD, gambling, and antisocial personality disorder. (4) The intervention and findings will be disseminated to the community.
