Guide to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth

TARGETED MESSAGES FOR HIV PREVENTION

OVERVIEW

Targeted messages for HIV prevention was a demonstration program which sought to provide junior and senior high school students with general knowledge and prevention strategies related to HIV/AIDS. Teachers are trained by health workers about HIV/AIDS general knowledge and HIV/AIDS prevention. An experimental, random-assignment evaluation found that the program was only slightly effective in increasing student knowledge about HIV/AIDS and prevention strategies.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Junior and senior high school students

This program involves training of teachers in topics related to general knowledge of HIV/AIDS and prevention of the disease. Teachers meet with health workers who provide the training and materials for teachers to use in their classrooms and then teachers present targeted messages to their students regarding HIV/AIDS. These messages address the differences between HIV and AIDS, seropositivity, risk of transmission of the virus, and effectiveness of prevention strategies.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Spadea, T., Schifano, P., Borgia, P., & Perucci, C. A. (1998). The balance of positive and negative effects of specific messages in the evaluation of interventions for preventing HIV infection. European Journal of Epidemiology, 15, 109-117.

Evaluated population: 3866 junior and high school students attending 46 schools randomly selected from all schools in the Lazio region of Italy. These schools were stratified based on their characteristics into three groups: junior high schools, technical high schools, and vocational and art high schools.

Approach: The 46 schools were randomly assigned to either the intervention group or the control group. Teachers in the intervention group attended training sessions taught by health workers. During these sessions, they were given information about AIDS transmission and prevention and were given instruction on how to teach their students about HIV/AIDS. Teachers then taught an unspecified number of classes and a check was conducted at each school to ensure that the program had been implemented. Students were evaluated through a questionnaire which evaluated general HIV/AIDS knowledge and perception of risk through different types of virus transmission. The questionnaire was administered before and after the intervention, and 81.4 percent of the initial sample completed both questionnaires.

Results: The impacts of the program were described as "weak" by the investigators. Students in the intervention condition improved their knowledge in a few specific areas including: the impossibility of transmission through social contacts, the meaning of "seropositivity", the difference between HIV and AIDS, and the lack of any cure for AIDS. There were some negative impacts of the program on knowledge about HIV/AIDS which occurred in the vocational and art high schools and among younger students. Specifically, student knowledge declined among vocational school students on questions regarding condom use and the risk associated with needle exchange. Younger students answered incorrectly more often when asked if HIV could be transmitted while donating blood.

NOTE: Results should be interpreted with caution as it is not clear if researchers corrected for random assignment done at the school level.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: 11-18 / Program age ranges in the Guide: adolescence; youth

Program components: school-based

Measured outcomes: education and cognitive development

Program information last updated 9/12/08