The video vignettes will be shown in the library's Dana Room on the fourth floor at 185 University Ave. The videos are part of a study funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research and the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health, as well as the Rutgers Busch Biomedical Research grant. The study examines the effectiveness of computerized tailored video health promotion messages as an approach to reduce HIV risk behavior.
The urban soap opera type vignettes are based on information gathered and analyzed from focus groups with women in public housing developments and other locations in Newark and Jersey City said Jones, assistant professor at Rutgers College of Nursing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heterosexual transmission accounts for 79 percent of HIV infection in women. Although African-American and Latina women together represent about 25 percent of all women in the United States, they account for 83 percent of AIDS diagnosis reported in 2003.
"HIV/AIDS among women is one of the most pressing public health problems in Newark, Jersey City and the surrounding communities," Jones said. "This is a preventable disease and we want to find out if these video vignettes, with their stories and characters, will change their views or attitudes about unprotected sex."
The stories were scripted and performed by students and graduates of The Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Rutgers-Newark. Other actors were selected from a large casting call. The HIV risk reduction message, based on the science of HIV risk and women's wisdom
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Contact: Miguel Tersy
mtersy@rutgers.edu
973-353-5293
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
24-Apr-2006