New Research
Safe sex videos may reduce HIV risk
Archived article from Dec 6, 2004
By Miguel Tersy
Video vignettes for hand-held computers hold potential for reducing sexual risk behavior for young women living in urban areas.
Rachel Jones, assistant professor at the College of Nursing, received a two-year $155,500 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study video health promotion messages as another approach to reduce HIV-risk behavior. Researchers will conduct focus groups with men and women in public housing developments and other locations in Newark and Jersey City. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 68 percent of the women in this age group with HIV were infected through heterosexual contact.
“An important aspect of this work is understanding, interpreting and communicating the wisdom of the majority of women and men in the community who know how to reduce HIV risk,” Jones says. “Another is the role of undergraduate nursing students who will assist with moderating the focus groups and communicating health promotion messages.”
After analyzing the focus group information, researchers will develop a series of video vignettes concerning trust, sexual pressure and high-risk sexual behavior. Working with Alan Roth, an independent documentary filmmaker, and Robert Nahory, a digital application developer at the Dana Library on the Newark campus, researchers will produce 20 video vignettes performed by actors that include Rutgers students and people in the community. A future study will evaluate the videos’ effectiveness in changing high-risk behavior.
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