During the medical exam, the paramedic will ask you a
few basic
questions about your
health or family history, and then they will take your weight, blood pressure, and get a urine and blood sample.
First, the
few studies that have followed participants beyond the immediate intervention period (6 months or less) have noted a decay of intervention effect on behavior over time, 5,6 prompting members of the National Institutes of
Health Consensus Panel: Intervention to Prevent HIV Risk Behavior to identify sustainability of program effectiveness as 1 of the most important
questions that professionals who are concerned with risk prevention face.7 A challenge for behavioral change interventions in general, this issue is particularly vexing for interventions that target decreased involvement in sex and substance use with advancing age
during adolescence.8, 9 Second, multiple behaviors (sex without a condom, sex with multiple partners, substance use before sex, etc) directly and indirectly place individuals at risk for acquisition of HIV.