Reducing the Risk of HIV Transmission Among Adolescents in Zambia: Psychosocial and Behavioral Behavioral Correlates of Viewing a Risk-Reduction Media Campaign

The researchers in the current study evaluated phase I of a theoretically informed media campaign designed by Zambian youth to encourage their peers to adopt risk-reduction strategies to avoid HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The Helping Each Other Act Responsibly Together (HEART) campaign targets people ages 13-19 with information on STIs and HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention. It promotes abstinence, a return to abstinence, or consistent condom use as viable risk-reduction strategies.

Phase I evaluation of HEART was done using separate sample baseline and follow-up designs. The 1999 baseline survey sample included 368 male and 533 female adolescents; the follow-up survey in 2000 comprised 496 male and 660 female youth.

After controlling for age, gender, educational attainment, and urban or rural residence, logistic regression analyses showed that campaign viewers were 1.61 times more likely than non-viewers to report primary or secondary abstinence and 2.38 times more likely to have ever used a condom. Compared with other respondents, the odds ratio of condom use during last sex was 2.1 for respondents who recalled at least three campaign television advertisements.

"The positive correlations between HEART campaign viewership and HIV risk-reduction practices demonstrate that mediated messages can influence adolescents," the authors concluded. "The HEART campaign is among a range of programs in Zambia designed to enable young people to protect their reproductive health. Future research should capture the independent as well as the synergistic effects of multiple campaigns and interventions."

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