Gay Today: Technology

The Web's STD Prevention Tool

Compiled by GayToday

The Nevada AIDS Hotline and The Body, the award-winning HIV/AIDS website, have launched an innovative and exciting new internet tool to help people determine their personal risks for HIV and other STDs.

In the United States alone, there are an estimated 15 million cases of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) every year, including 40,000 new HIV infections. In fact, the US has the highest STD rate in the industrialized world. And yet, prevention efforts falter.

Visitors to The Body will be able to take an anonymous 23-question health risk assessment and receive customized feedback to their responses.

Data will be gathered and analyzed by The Body and the Nevada AIDS Hotline. The Body is now the most frequently visited HIV/AIDS-related site on the Web, according to the Medical Library Association.

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"Get ready to see the internet dramatically change the way risk assessments are done," says Jamie Marks, The Body's founder and president. "People are more forthcoming when answering questions by computer than with older techniques. The web is an amazingly powerful tool and will ultimately help people learn more about their risks and perhaps help change risky behavior."

The interactive HIV/STD health risk assessment at The Body builds on groundbreaking studies at Research Triangle Institute released in May 1998, which showed study participants in an interactive computer setting were far more likely to report sexual behavior that could lead to HIV transmission, when compared to participants answering with pencil and paper or face to face.

The risk assessment is absolutely anonymous, and was developed by Rick Sowadsky, MSPH CDS, Senior Communicable Disease Specialist with the Nevada State Health Division AIDS Program, and the Coordinator of the Nevada AIDS Hotline.

Rick Sowadsky

Mr. Sowadsky says that, "the internet has given people access to information that was previously difficult to obtain. People now have easy access to HIV and STD information, and can apply that information to their personal lives."

The feedback section of the risk assessment features informational links to help participants learn more specific details about HIV and other STDs, both through information available at The Body, and by accessing the services of the Nevada AIDS Hotline.

The STD health risk assessment is available at: hwww.thebody.com/surveys/sexsurvey.html