An educational HIV pretest counseling video program for off-hours testing in the emergency department.

Publication/Presentation Date

7-1-2006

Abstract

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Multiple barriers to traditional pretest HIV counseling make HIV testing difficult to accomplish in the emergency department setting in off hours. This study compares the educational effectiveness of a 10-minute pretest counseling video with the usual practice of a session with an HIV counselor.

METHODS: This was a prospective randomized controlled trial of adult patients presenting to the urgent care area of a busy inner-city hospital. Patients either viewed an HIV educational video or spoke with an HIV counselor for pretest counseling. The video was developed by 2 of the investigators (YC, MH) and covered essential educational elements for HIV testing, as required by the New York State Department of Health. All participants completed a measure of HIV knowledge after their intervention. An equivalence analysis was performed to assess whether the video was at least as good as counseling in terms of overall mean knowledge score.

RESULTS: Of 129 patients recruited for the study, 65 patients were randomized to the intervention and 64 patients to the control group. Five patients were unable to complete the study. The final analysis was based on 124 patients. Mean knowledge scores were higher in the intervention (85.3% versus 79.7%; 90% confidence interval for the difference 2.6% to 8.7%).

CONCLUSION: We conclude that the use of an educational video with an inner-city adult population was at least as effective as in-person pretest counseling in conveying information related to HIV testing.

Volume

48

Issue

1

First Page

21

Last Page

27

ISSN

1097-6760

Disciplines

Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Health and Medical Administration | Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods

PubMedID

16781919

Department(s)

Administration and Leadership

Document Type

Article

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