HIV screening and counseling for intravenous drug abuse patients: staff and patient attitudes

Article Abstract:

Methadone is given to former heroin addicts to satisfy the body's craving for the drug without causing a high. At least a third of patients enrolled in a methadone program were willing to comply voluntarily with screening for and counseling about AIDS. Two thirds of the patients and 79 percent of the clinical staff anonymously completed a questionnaire concerning knowledge, attitudes and behavior related to AIDS. Twenty-one percent of the patients had already obtained anonymous testing and brief counselling on their own initiative; they had seldom discussed the result with the staff. Ninety percent of the staff and 70 percent of the patients thought that a voluntary AIDS screening program should be available to all patients. Almost all of the staff, but only half of the patients, thought that AIDS test results should be made known to physicians, nurses and counselors at the clinic. Only 15 percent of the staff thought that patients had changed their sexual behavior, but 48 percent thought that sharing of drug needles had been reduced. Half the patients thought that methadone patients in general had changed their sexual behavior to avoid becoming infected; 60 percent thought that needle sharing had been reduced to avoid infection. Patients reported fewer sexual partners and less needle sharing over the previous year.

Health aspects, Testing, Prevention, Surveys, HIV (Viruses), HIV, Beliefs, opinions and attitudes, Drug addicts, Drug abusers, AIDS (Disease), Methadone maintenance, Drug abuse counselors

---

Effects of Physical Activity Counseling in Primary Care: The Activity Counseling Trial: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Article Abstract:

Patient counseling that includes written material, e-mail and telephone follow-up, and behavioral classes may be more effective than simple advice in prompting more patients to be physically active. In a study of 874 people, women were more likely to respond to this counseling than men.

---

Physical Activity Counseling in Primary Care: The Challenge of Effecting Behavioral Change

Article Abstract:

Intensive health counseling to get patients to change their behavior may not always be successful. One study encouraged patients to become more physically active, with no results in men and only moderate results in women.

Editorial

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Raising the consciousness for identifying and controlling viral STDs: fears and frustrations. Premarket Evaluation of the POCkit HSV-2 Type-Specific Serologic Test in Culture-Documented Cases of Genital Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2
• Abstracts: Mutations in the nonstructural protein 5a gene and response to interferon in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus 1b infection
• Abstracts: Outbreak of invasive pneumococcal disease in a jail - Texas, 1989. Hepatitis B Outbreak in a State Correctional Facility, 2000

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.