Sessions also focused on the importance of breast and prostate cancer screening. The health risks of excessive alcohol use, particularly for those infected with hepatitis C, was also covered.
The HIV/STD risk-reduction intervention was structurally similar to the health promotion intervention; however, it focused on the participants as members of couples rather than as individuals.
The mean participant age was 43 years, and the HIV-positive partner was female in 60% of the couples. Attendance at the eight sessions of both interventions was excellent, with a retention rate of 88% at 12 months post intervention, Dr. El-Bassel and her associates reported.
Health promotion–intervention participants were more likely to report consuming five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily (rate ratio, 1.38) and adhering to physical activity guidelines (RR, 1.39) compared with the HIV/STD intervention participants. In the health promotion intervention, compared with the HIV/STD intervention, participants consumed fatty foods less frequently (mean difference, –0.18), more men received prostate cancer screening (RR, 1.51), and more women received a mammogram (RR, 1.26). Alcohol use did not differ between the intervention groups.
One possible explanation for the lack of an effect of the health promotion intervention on alcohol use is that the HIV/STD intervention also covered the subject, cautioning that alcohol use could be a trigger for unsafe sexual behavior, they noted.
"We are optimistic that the present study offers an approach that may help reduce the disproportionately high morbidity and mortality rates from chronic diseases in African Americans," Dr. El-Bassel and her associates concluded.
Dr. Katz agreed. "Although serodiscordant couples are a highly specialized population, there is no reason to believe that their intervention would not work among other HIV-infected persons. Certainly, this study should encourage others to attempt group health promotion classes because, as I often tell my HIV-infected patients with diabetes, liver disease, or uncontrolled hypertension, ‘It’s not HIV that’s going to kill you.’ "
Neither Dr. Katz nor any of the investigators in either study reported financial disclosures.