Community-level HIV intervention in 5 cities: final outcome data from the CDC AIDS Community Demonstration Projects.

Community-level interventions to prevent HIV aim to change community-wide norms and practices in order to support peoples efforts to change. Such interventions have enjoyed some success in preventing HIV infection. AIDS Community Demonstration Projects were conducted in Dallas Texas; Denver Colorado; Long Beach California; New York city; and Seattle Washington. In each city the project focused upon 1-3 of the following populations: active IV drug users their female sex partners female prostitutes high-risk youth non-gay-identified men who have sex with men and residents in areas with high STD rates. Role-model stories condoms and bleach were distributed to members of target populations by community members who encouraged positive behavior change. During 1991-94 15205 cross-sectional interviews were conducted in 10 intervention and comparison community pairs with outcomes measured on a stage-of-change scale. Observed condom carrying and intervention exposure were also measured. At the community level movement toward consistent condom use with main and non-main partners as well as increased condom carrying was greater in intervention than in comparison communities. At the individual level questionnaire respondents recently exposed to the intervention were more likely to carry condoms and to have higher stage-of-change scores for condom and bleach use.