REDUCTION OF AIDS RISK FACTORS AND CONCERNS

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The purpose of this project is to evaluate an intervention in which primary care providers (physicians and nurse practitioners) receive feedback about AIDS-related risk factors, beliefs, concerns and intervention desires of patients who have not been infected by the HIV virus, prior to the medical visit. The impact of the intervention on modifiable AIDS risk factors, beliefs and concerns, as well as more generalized health outcomes (perceived health status, health worry and psychological distress), will be evaluated periodically during the following six months. A secondary goal is to examine the relationship between AIDS risk factors and concerns and these global health outcomes. The results of this study will increase our understanding of the importance and effectiveness of primary care providers in combating both the direct and indirect effects of the AIDS epidemic. If proven beneficial, the experimental intervention can also serve as a model which might facilitate the reduction of other types of patient concerns and the modification of other risk factors in the primary care setting. This study will take place in a largely black, inner-city, general internal medicine practice in Philadelphia. Ten health care providers and 600 patients will participate. Patients will be included in this study if they have not been infected by the HIV virus; if they agree to sign an Informed Consent form; and if 1) their concerns about AIDS are having at least a slight effect on their physical and emotional health, or 2) they have a modifiable AIDS risk factor. Health care workers will not receive any feedback on the first 200 eligible patients entered into the study. The next 400 patients will be randomly assigned to a patients prior to the medical visit. This questionnaire will evaluate the following: 1) AIDS risk factors, 2) patients' beliefs and concerns about AIDS, 3) the impact of AIDS concerns on the patients' health status, and 4) interventions patients desire for reassurance about AIDS. Questionnaire administered immediately, one month and six months after the visit will be used to determine changes in the following dependent variables: AIDS beliefs and concerns, AIDS risk factors, perceived health status, health worry and psychological distress.