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