British researchers evaluating an educational effort to reduce risky sexual behavior in gay men unexpectedly found that men who participated in a safe sex workshop were more likely to acquire a new sexually transmitted disease (STD) during the 12-month follow-up than were men in the control group.
In the study, published in the June 16 issue of BMJ, 343 gay men who had an acute non-HIV STD or who reported recent unprotected anal intercourse had a 20-minute private counseling session on safer sex practices. About half the men (the intervention group) also took part in a 1-day workshop.
Unexpectedly, a larger proportion of men in the intervention group (31%) had at least one sexually transmitted infection in the follow-up year compared with 21% of men in the control group. "Even carefully formulated behavioural interventions should not be assumed to bring benefit," the researchers noted, adding that . . . [Full Text of this Article]
