Publication Date:
01 Sep 2006
Citation:
Mola OD, Mercer MA, Asghar RJ, Sherr K, Sherr S, Micek MA, et al. (2006). Condom use after voluntary counselling and testing in Central Mozambique. Trop Med Int Health. 11(2), 176-181. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2005.01548.x
Abstract
Objective
To evaluate the efficacy of voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) for HIV/AIDS inchanging risky sexual behaviour in central Mozambique.
Method
Longitudinal cohort study of men and women aged at least 18 years from October 2002 toJune 2003. We interviewed 622 participants in VCT groups and 598 in non-VCT groups. The interviewsoccurred before counselling and 4 and 6 months afterwards.
Results
Reported use of condoms while having sex with a friends/prostitute increased over each timeperiod in the VCT group and between baseline and first visit in the non-VCT group. Both men andwomen in the VCT group increased their condom use over time, but the women in the non-VCT groupdid not. Reported always/sometimes use of condoms for both literate and illiterate subjects was higherand rose over time in the VCT group.
Conclusion
People who undergo voluntary counselling and testing fro HIV/AIDS change theirbehaviour, presumably as a result of their counselling.