Effects of a one-hour intervention on condom implementation intentions among drug users in Southern California

Approximately 36% of HIV cases are related to substance abuse. Substance abusers, including non-injection drug users, are at a high-risk for contracting HIV due to risky behaviors, including unprotected sex. Due to these behavioral and infection risks, feasible interventions that focus on condom use within this population are imperative. The current study involved the development of brief intervention designed to increase implementation intentions (situation-linked action plans) to use condoms in convicted non-violent drug offenders participating in drug diversion programs in Southern California. Participants (n = 143) were randomized at the individual level to either waitlist control or experimental conditions. The randomized waitlist control group received the HIV survey for the pre-test before the intervention, while the experimental group received a neutral, non-HIV-related, survey at pre-test. The experimental group received the HIV survey as the post-test after the intervention (waitlist control group received the neutral, non-HIV-related, survey). One-tailed Mann Whitney U tests were used to compare the waitlist control and experimental groups. The experimental group was more likely to report stronger implementation intentions to use condoms (p <0.001). These results indicate in the short term that a brief, easily disseminated HIV intervention can be effective for increasing implementation intentions to use condoms in an extremely high HIV-risk population.