News

Featured news from NHIVNA

HIV-related news from NAM

Intervention with cash lottery prizes cuts HIV infection by 39% in young women in Lesotho
Roger Pebody, 2013-07-04 14:00:00

An HIV prevention intervention in which young people who had tested negative for sexually transmitted infections were given lottery tickets and had the possibility of winning a cash prize reduced the number of HIV infections by 39% in young women, researchers reported to the 7th International AIDS Society conference (IAS 2013) this week. However, the intervention did not have any impact on young men in this trial in Lesotho.

Evaluations of HIV prevention interventions which measure biological outcomes (such as new infections) rather than improvements in knowledge or attitudes, are few and far between. Behavioural interventions which demonstrate an efficacy of this magnitude are even rarer.

The conference also heard that financial incentives have improved HIV testing rates in drug users in a Canadian study.

In recent years, interest in the possibility of influencing health behaviours through conditional cash transfers and other financial incentives has been growing. Aidsmap has reported on discussions of the ethics, feasibility and effectiveness of these approaches at international conferences in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Source:1