HIV/AIDS education in a prenatal clinic: an assessment

An HIV/AIDS education and counseling program was integrated into the routine medical care of women attending the prenatal clinic of a major urban, inner-city, teaching hospital that serves mostly indigent minority women in an area hard hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Pre- and post-intervention questionnaires were administered to a consecutive historical Control Group (n = 98) who did not receive the HIV/AIDS information and an Intervention Group (n = 515) who received all information. The data support our hypothesis that an HIV/AIDS education program would increase the level of general knowledge, but fail to support our hypothesis of a positive effect on attitudes around HIV-antibody testing and an increase in desire for voluntary testing. Our hypothesis that women reporting more risk behaviors would be more likely to agree to HIV-antibody testing was only partially supported.