Reducing HIV: Safer Sex Skill Building in Pregnant Drug Abusing Women

"Safer Sex Skills Building" in Pregnant Women: Dace Svikis, (Psychology, Ob-Gyn, Psychiatry) PI, Diane Langhorst (Social Work) and Nichole Karjane, (OB-Gyn) Co-Investigators). This study will focus on increasing Safer Sex Skills development among pregnant women at high risk for HIV infection. The "Safer Sex Skill Building" (SSB) program developed by El Bassel and Schilling (1991, 1992), has demonstrated efficacy in national studies in reducing sexual risk for HIV and other STD transmission. This manual-driven, gender-specific intervention has proven effective in reducing sexual risk behaviors in both methadone maintenance and outpatient drug-free patients. To date, however, the intervention has not been tested with pregnant drug abusing women who may actually be at increased risk if they stop using condoms or continue drug use during pregnancy. This study will examine SSB, a targeted behavioral HIV prevention and risk reduction intervention in two samples of pregnant drug abusing women. Using a 2x2 design, a randomized clinical trial will compare the five-session SSB group intervention to a one-session standard group HIV Education intervention (SE). Study findings will provide benchmark data on the efficacy of SSB for HIV and STD prevention in a diverse sample of pregnant drug abusing women.