Gender-based violence and public health: The HIV prevention intervention among abused women in South Africa

Background

 Collaborative research project by Centre for the Study of AIDS (CSA), University of Pretoria and Department of Psychology /Psychiatry and Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University.  People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA), NGO that provides training and support services to women who have experienced sexual abuse and violence.

 Research Design

·        Recruited and assessed a total of 100 women who had experienced sexual abuse and violence, the participants met the criteria that indicates: sexual abuse, traumatic stress and HIV risk.  Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two intervention conditions, (a) HIV prevention group intervention or (b) support group comparison condition, the standard-of -care at POWA.
·        The intervention was carried out in three stages:

• Baseline assessment which was translated into two other indigenous languages –, (IsiZulu, & SeSotho); 2) HIV prevention group intervention Training (one day and six day). 
  

 Results
·        Marriage, violent and/or coercive sexual encounters, economic dependence  are context of considerable vulnerability for women.
·        The group sessions offered peer counselling and peer learning for the women, a process which should be explored further

·        Indeed, both the 1-day workshop and 6-session group intervention were found to be beneficial to the women.  Examples of quantitative gains include an increase in HIV knowledge and the intention to reduce sexual risk, as well as a decrease in trauma-related stress decreases.  Women also felt supported and encouraged from both interventions.     

 Impact

• Quantitatively there was a greater decrease in negative HIV attitudes among women in the 6-session group, and it is expected that a full-scale intervention trial would better quantify the differences between the two intervention types.