WITHDRAWN: Feasibility and Effect of an Intervention to Prevent HIV/STIs in Young Adult Latino Couples

Background: Young Hispanics continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV and other STIs. Interventions for this population are still scarce, particularly those that transcend the individual level of intervention. We will present the findings of a study in which we adapted and tested the feasibility and effect of a culturally tailored intervention to prevent HIV/STIs in young heterosexual Hispanic couples.

Methods: Participants were 74 young couples between 18-30 years of age recruited from October 2010 to September 2011. Thirty-eight couples were randomly assigned to a treatment group and 36 to a waiting list. The intervention consisted of five three-hour psycho-educational sessions. The primary outcomes of the intervention included reducing unprotected sex, increasing male condom use, and HIV testing. 

Results: We were able to recruit the proposed sample size and retain 89% (n=66) of couples at post-test and 86% (n=64) at 3-months follow-up. Seventy-one percent (n=27) of the couples assigned to the experimental group attended any session, and 53% (n=20) attended 3 or more sessions. The majority of participants (94.7%) reported that they felt comfortable or very comfortable during the sessions, and most of them (95.4%) reported that sessions were good or very good. Ordinal regression revealed that those couples that attended more sessions had a higher likelihood of using condoms (O.R.=1.3, CI= 1.017-1.661). Using the SAS procedures for mixed models using restricted maximum likelihood estimation, we also found that, while controlling for the frequency of anal sex at the pre intervention, those in the experimental group had a lower frequency of anal sex after the intervention (p-value < .05) with a moderate effect size of 0.44. Participants in the experimental group also evidenced perceived less difficulty using condoms (p-value < 0.01; moderate effect size of 0.49) and a statistical tendency reporting a higher rate of HIV testing (p- value <.06, small effect size of 0.33). 

Conclusions: Implementing interventions with young adult Hispanic couples is a feasible strategy to prevent HIV/STIs. Intervention effects showed promising results that suggest that promoting condom use, decreasing unprotected anal sex, and increasing HIV testing are feasible prevention strategies among these couples. A study with a bigger sample size is recommended to prove the efficacy of this intervention.