AEROBIC EXERCISE INTERVENTION IN A MULTIETHNIC SYMPTOMATIC HIV-1 INFECTED SAMPLE

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The proposed project extends our NIMH-funded studies of behavioral interventions for individuals with Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Type 1 (HIV-1) infection. These studies showed that a program of moderate aerobic exercise training for asymptomatic and healthy gay males, prior to receiving a positive HIV-1 diagnosis, lowered self-report levels of anxiety, depression, and helplessness, while maintaining active coping strategies and social support following news of seropositivity. The current 5-year prospective study will determine if similar benefits to mental health can be derived, from aerobic exercise training, by African- and nonHispanic White-American men and women, with early symptomatic HIV- 1 infection (World Health Organization stage-3; WHO, 1990) regardless of exposure category. To date, there have been no experimentally designed prospective stress management intervention studies with symptomatic pre- AIDS multiethnic men and women drawn across exposure category. This intervention, based on our experiences with aerobic exercise training in HIV-1 seropositive individuals over the past five years utilizes a 3- month fitness acquisition period (one hour and 15 minutes of moderate intensity exercise and stretching for each of 3 supervised aerobic exercise sessions per week) and a 9-month maintenance period of similar supervised exercise training. We will randomize 176 men (88 African American, 88 nonHispanic White American) and 88 women (44 African- American, 44 nonHispanic White-American) to either the intervention condition or an assessment-only control condition and will conduct aerobic fitness, psychosocial, psychiatric, urinary, and blood assessments at study entry, 3-months, and 12-months. This study extends previous work by examining the effects of a long term intervention on affect and behavior in African- and nonHispanic White-American men and women who are coping with HIV-related symptoms and stressors. An additional extension concerns the use of cognitive behavioral modification package for relapse prevention in order to determine the feasibility of aerobic exercise training as a long-term treatment for HIV-1 infection.