Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-8-2012
Abstract
Thailand is among the few less-developed countries with successful HIV prevention among segments of the population (National AIDS Prevention and Alleviation Committee, 2010). However, the success of HIV prevention among Thai adolescents and young adults has been questionable. The highest percentage of Thai persons with AIDS remain in the age group of 25–34 years, indicating that the time of greatest HIV acquisition has occurred in adolescence and young adulthood (Thai Working Group on HIV/AIDS, 2010). Most Thai youth living with HIV (TYLH) acquire HIV through sexual contact (National AIDS Prevention and Alleviation Committee, 2010). In a study of TYLH, only half reported consistent condom use in the previous 30 days (Rongkavilit et al., 2007); therefore, secondary prevention targeting sexual risk behaviors in TYLH are needed. Behavioral intervention research targeting youth with HIV in less-developed countries remains nonexistent. An intervention that is brief, culturally acceptable, and can increase young people's intrinsic motivation to reduce risk behaviors and maintain these changes over time is critically needed for this setting. Motivational interviewing (MI), an empirically supported behavioral counseling approach, targets an individual's intrinsic motivation for change by exploring and resolving ambivalence about behavior change while supporting the individual's self-efficacy and autonomy for making changes. The MI approach can impact the information, motivation, and behavioral skills necessary to achieve a behavior change according to the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills model (Fisher & Fisher, 1992). MI has been successfully shown to reduce risk behaviors among youth in developed countries (Fisher, Fisher, Misovich, Kimble, & Malloy, 1996; Spirito et al., 2004). Furthermore, Healthy Choices, an MI-based intervention, reduced plasma HIV viral load and depression among youth living with HIV in the United States (Naar-King, Parsons, Murphy, Kolmodin, & Harris, 2010; Naar-King et al., 2009). In this article, we present the adaptation of the original Healthy Choices for TYLH and the feasibility testing of the adapted Thai Healthy Choices to improve risk behaviors in TYLH.
Comments
J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Jan 1. Published in final edited form as: J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care. 2012 Jun 8;25(1):10.1016/j.jana.2012.02.008. doi: 10.1016/j.jana.2012.02.008