Religious groups as diffusers of HIV antidody testing and prevention messages

Using a quasi-experimental design, this study examined how delivering a bri ef training to volunteers in church congregations impacted (a) church volun teers' persistence in delivering HIV antibody testing messages over time an d (b) HIV antibody testing. behavior of the church volunteers themselves. C hurch volunteers attended a briefing regarding delivery of public health me ssages to others and the churches were assigned to either: (a) a trained co ndition, when 345 volunteers received an additional 3-hour training in diff using HIV prevention messages, or (b) a comparison condition, where 199 vol unteers received no Hn I-specific training Three months after the intervent ion, church volunteers in the HIV-trained condition reported delivering an HIV antibody testing and prevention message to mo,a community members than volunteers in the comparison condition. Those In the HIV-trained condition also reported significantly higher levels of comfort and self-efficiency in delivering HIV prevention messages than volunteers in the comparison condi tion. However, the trained volunteers did not themselves get tested for HIV at higher rates than the untrained volunteers. Training church volunteers for community diffusion of HIV prevention message is an efficient strategy for diffusing HIV messages. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.