Christopher Godfrey, PhD(c)¹, Nadia Minian, MPhil¹, Beatrice Krauss, PhD², Peter Nwakeze, PhD¹, Nicholas Freudenberg, DrPH³, and Robert Kaplan, MPhil¹. (1) Hunter College Center on AIDS, Drugs and Community Health, 425 East 25th Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10010, 212-481-4673, ccgodfrey@aol.com, (2) Hunter College Center on AIDS, Drugs, and Community Health, 425 East 25th street 8th floor, New York, NY 10010, (3) City University of New York, Program in Urban Public Health at Hunter College, 425 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010

Prevention Case Management(PCM) is a strategy for reducing high-risk HIV-related behaviors among clients with multiple, complex problems. Two of PCM’s theoretical foundations, Stages of Behavioral Change Theory and Harm Reduction Philosophy, are centered on building individuals’ self-awareness of the negative consequences of high-risk behaviors as key to motivation for change.

Here we present some preliminary analyses of an on-going evaluation study of PCM’s efficacy. Our initial findings indicate that, when compared to their self-reports at enrollment into PCM, alcohol-dependent participants reported less alcohol consumption at their 90-day interview. Presently, we ask about the factors influencing this reduction. Illuminating the role of self-awareness of high-risk behavior and their negative consequences will help us to understand if and how PCM works to reduce risks.

Subjects: 657 clients in PCM programs at 10 community-based organizations in New York City.

Individuals are assessed upon entry into PCM, and again after 90 days, on HIV-related risk behavior, health and mental health status, housing, and social service needs. Embedded in the assessments are questions about both individuals’ awareness of high risk behaviors and their negative consequences.

Logistic regression was conducted to identify factors associated with decreased alcohol use. The predictors were health status score(medical outcome measure), depression score(CES-D), self-awareness and perception of others’ awareness of negative consequences of drinking.

Only self-awareness was significantly associated with decreased alcohol abuse. As self-awareness of alcohol-related problems increases, reported alcohol abuse decreases. Holding all other variables constant, each point increase in problem-awareness decreases the odds of alcohol abuse by 1.4.

Learning Objectives:

• 1)List four factors associated with reduced alcohol use among those experiencing multiple high risk contexts.
• 2)Evaluate how self-awareness of high-risk behavior and their negative consequences work to reduce health risk in PCM.

Keywords: Alcohol, HIV Interventions

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.