cameroonian preadolescents’ perspectives of an hiv prevention intervention喀麦隆的青春期前的一个艾滋病预防干预的观点.pdfVIP

World Journal of AIDS, 2011, 1, 43-49 43 doi:10.4236/wja.2011.12008 Published Online June 2011 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/wja) Cameroonian Preadolescents’ Perspectives of an HIV Prevention Intervention Comfort Enah, Linda Moneyham, Gwendolyn Childs, Carrie Ann Gakumo School of Nursing, University of Alabama, Birmingham, USA. Email: enahcc@ Received April 30th, 2011; Revised May 20th, 2011; Accepted May 27th, 2011. ABSTRACT Purpose : Determining and incorporating the perspective of the target population is important to the developments of effective and sustainable HIV prevention efforts. Cameroonian preadolescent females remain at high risk for contract- ing HIV and have not benefitted from targeted HIV prevention efforts. In this report, findings are presented from data collected from 60 Cameroonian preadolescent females; ages 10 - 12 years ; following their completion of an HIV pre- vention intervention. Methods : The theory-based intervention utilized the World Health Organization ’s Responsible Behavior : Delaying Sex curriculum which had been tailored for the target population with the assistance of Cameroo- nian experts. The data reported here were collected as part of a questionnaire participants completed post-intervention. Results : With only a few exceptions, participants perceived the intervention to be appropriate and relevant. No signifi- cant differences were found in participants’ assessment of the intervention across different ages and ethnic groups. Discussion : Evaluating the appropriateness of interventions to the developmental level, gender, and culture of partici- pants is an essential step in developing effective and sustainable interventions. Findings in this study are encouraging and indicate that interventions adapted with the assistance of local experts can be perceiv