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document
Testing the efficacy of an HIV stigma reduction intervention with medical students in Puerto Rico : the SPACES project . INTRODUCTION Stigma associated with HIV has been documented as a barrier for accessing quality health-related services . When the stigma manifests in the health care setting , people living with HIV receive substandard services or even be denied care altogether . Although the consequences of HIV stigma have been documented extensively , efforts to reduce these negative attitudes have been scarce . Interventions to reduce HIV stigma should be implemented as part of the formal training of future health care professionals . The interventions that have been tested with health care professionals and published have several limitations that must be surpassed ( i.e . lack of comparison groups in research designs and longitudinal follow-up data ) . Furthermore , Latino health care professionals have been absent from these intervention efforts even though the epidemic has affected this population disproportionately . METHODS In this article , we describe an intervention developed to reduce HIV stigma among medical students in Puerto Rico . A total of 507 medical students were randomly introduced into our intervention and control conditions . RESULTS The results show statistically significant differences between the intervention and control groups ; intervention group participants had lower HIV stigma levels than control participants after the intervention . In addition , differences in HIV stigma levels between the groups were sustained for a 12-month period . CONCLUSION The results of our study demonstrate the efficacy of the modes of intervention developed by us and serve as a new training tool for future health care professionals with regard to stigma reduction .
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Intervention_Educational
HIV stigma reduction intervention
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Intervention_Educational
Interventions to reduce HIV stigma
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Intervention_Educational
intervention developed to reduce HIV stigma among medical students in Puerto Rico
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Intervention_Educational
intervention
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Intervention_Physical
and
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Intervention_Control
control conditions
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Intervention_Educational
intervention
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Intervention_Physical
control
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Outcome_Mental
HIV stigma reduction
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Outcome_Mental
Stigma
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Outcome_Mental
HIV stigma
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Outcome_Mental
HIV stigma
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Outcome_Mental
HIV stigma
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Outcome_Mental
lower HIV stigma levels
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Outcome_Mental
HIV stigma levels
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Outcome_Mental
stigma reduction
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Participant_Sample-size
507