Using Peer Educators to Promote HIV Awareness Among Male Migrants in Mexico

Abstract

The authors compared the effectiveness of three methods of educating migrant men about HIV: (a) prevention pamphlets, (b) a small-group lecture, and (c) peer-based prevention education. They recruited 536 migrant men in Mexicali, Mexico, for interviews at baseline and 1-month follow-up. Comparisons were made on five HIV-related outcome variables using repeated-measures general linear regression models. The participants who received the peer education had a greater change in self-efficacy and in behavioral intentions compared with both of the other groups and a greater change in AIDS knowledge and self-control compared with those who received the small-group lecture intervention.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV prevention
• peer education
• migrants
• migration
• Mexico

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank our two interviewers, Daniel Rangel Castro and José Luís Benitez Guerrero, and the directors and staff of the two shelters in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, who provided support to the project and access to their clients.