Does motivational interviewing counseling time influence HIV-positive persons' self-efficacy to practice safer sex?

ObjectiveThis study examined the impact of motivational interviewing (MI) counseling time on self-efficacy to practice safer sex for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).MethodsIn 4 month intervals we followed a cohort of 490 PLWHA for 12 months.We conducted hierarchical linear regression models to examine changes in safer sex self-efficacy when participants received zero, low to moderate (5-131 min) and high (132-320 min) doses of MI time. We conducted a similar analysis using number of counseling sessions as the predictor variable.ResultsParticipants with low to moderate doses of MI counseling had 0.26 higher self-efficacy scores than participants with zero MI time (p = 0.01). Also, they had 0.26 lower self-efficacy scores than participants with high amounts of MI time (p = 0.04). Participants with high doses of MI had a 0.5 higher self-efficacy score than participants with zero amount of MI time (p < 0.0001). Participants who received 3-4 counseling sessions had 0.41 greater self-efficacy scores than participants who did not receive any sessions (p < 0.0001) but did not differ from participants receiving 1-2 sessions.ConclusionMI time is a key to enhancing safer sex self-efficacy among PLWHA.Practice implicationsSafer sex self-efficacy improves the more MI counseling time and sessions PLWHA receive.