Evaluation of a brief video-based intervention (Sunset Without AIDS) for older men to improve the ability of AIDS prevention in China: A Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)
Authors: Jianlan Ren , Mei Li , daiying Zhang , Yue Luo , Jian Tang , Yu Zheng , longsheng Xie , yanhua Chen 
Published: July 2022

BACKGROUND

The AIDS epidemic among older people is becoming more serious, and the number of new infections continues to rise, especially in older men. Evidence-based, acceptable and effective preventive interventions are urgently needed to increase their capacity to prevent HIV. Video-based intervention has become an innovative way to change healthy behaviors, and we have developed a brief video-based intervention named Sunset Without AIDS.

OBJECTIVE

In this study, we tested the effectiveness of a brief video-based intervention targeting older men's ability of AIDS prevention.

METHODS

A randomized controlled trial was conducted from June 20 to July 3, 2021. In total, 100 older men were recruited from three communities selected from the Kuangchang Town in Luzhou city by simple random sampling. The older men were randomly divided into the intervention group (n=50) and the control group (n=50) by the envelope extraction method. The intervention group was given the Sunset Without AIDS video; the control group was received a normal AIDS education video downloaded from the website of the Chinese CDC. An AIDS-related knowledge questionnaire, a stigma attitude scale, and an attitude questionnaire on AIDS-related high-risk behaviors were used to measure the effect of the Sunset Without AIDS video via face-to-face interviews after two interventions. And all older men in the intervention group were interviewed for user experience. The two groups’ AIDS-related high-risk behaviors were followed up 1 and 3 months after the intervention. Three months after the intervention, convenience sampling method was used to select 10 older men from the intervention group. After watching two videos, face-to-face interviews were conducted to evaluate the satisfaction and acceptance of the intervention. The difference was statistically significant at P≤0.05.

RESULTS

After two interventions, the total awareness rate (%) of AIDS-related knowledge in the intervention group and control group was 84% (42/50) and 66% (33/50), respectively, with x2=4.320 and P＝0.038. The stigma attitude scores of the two groups were (2.53±0.45) and (2.58±0.49), with t=0.604 and P=0.549. The positive scores (Mean±SD, %) of attitudes of AIDS-related high-risk behaviors of the two groups were 83.33 (SD 21.56) and 75.67 (SD 26.77), with t=1.592 and P=0.58. At 1 and 3 months follow-up after the intervention, participants in two groups did not report AIDS-related high-risk behaviors. After watching the Sunset without AIDS and normal AIDS education video, more people accepted and were satisfied with the Sunset without AIDS.

CONCLUSIONS

Sunset without AIDS could improve the ability of AIDS prevention for older men in China. It could increase AIDS-related knowledge among older men, but the effect was not seen in reducing AIDS-related stigma, improving the attitudes towards high-risk AIDS behaviors and reducing AIDS-related high-risk behaviors. Large-scale and long-term effects studies are needed to assess the efficacy of Sunset without AIDS intervention.

CLINICALTRIAL

Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR2100045708.

INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT

RR2-doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06069-3