Health Education about AIDS among Seropositive Blood Donors

Abstract

The New York Blood Center is developing a health education and psychosocial sup port program for blood donors who are notified that they are HIV antibody positive. The goals of that program are: (1) to provide accurate and intelligible information about the test results to notified donors; (2) to encourage behavior that will reduce the likelihood of spreading the virus; (3) to encourage notified donors to behave in ways that will reduce the probability that they will develop AIDS; and (4) to provide sup port and facilitate functional coping responses. This article reviews the theoretical and empirical work which informs the intervention program, and it describes how the pro gram is being implemented.