Even three months after the study, participants in the computer program
scored higher on tests that gauged their HIV/AIDS knowledge. The study
was published in the American Journal of Health Behavior.
All drug users reported less risky behavior with regard to HIV infection
after participating in the study, regardless of whether they received the
computer or counselor-based intervention, say Lisa Marsch, Ph.D., and Warren
Bickel, Ph.D., of the University of Vermont and HealthSim Inc.
But participants in the computer program expressed more interest in their
three to five computer trainings than those who sat through two counseling
sessions and a video showed for their educational activities.
“The highly interactive learning process required by the computer-based
intervention likely contributed to how interesting participants perceived
it to be,” Marsch says.
The computer users also showed signs of wanting to continue
their HIV education after the study’s end, with 80 percent of the
computer users asking for follow-up materials, compared with 40 percent
of the
counseling group.
Marsch and Bickel designed the computer intervention especially for injection
drug users, to boost knowledge about HIV/AIDS, its risks and preventive
measures. The interactive program includes both multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank
quizzes, delivered at a speed that adjusts to how quickly and accurately
a person responds to each question.
The researchers tested how well the computer-based intervention fared
against regular counseling in 30 injection drug users who had entered a
clinic for buprenorphine therapy, a treatment used to break addiction to
heroin and other addictive opioid drugs.
Marsch and Bickel say it’s hard to tell whether
the intervention, the buprenorphine or a combination helped lower risky
behaviors among
the study participants.
Marsch says the results are consistent with other studies
showing that computers are effective tools for changing health behavior, “although
the costs of computer-based interventions have been shown to be markedly
lower.”
