The Brief Disclosure Intervention (BDI): Facilitating African Americans' Disclosure of HIV

Abstract

HIV+ African Americans face many challenges that may be addressed by increased social support. This manuscript presents the Brief Disclosure Intervention and explores strategies to tailor the intervention to facilitate disclosure, increase social support, and ameliorate health disparities among HIV+ African Americans. The disclosure decision-making model served as the theoretical framework. HIV+ African Americans (N = 43) in New Jersey participated in structured interviews at 2 time points and half received the intervention. The intervention group reported increased disclosure efficacy and decreased disclosure anxiety and worry. Qualitative themes for disclosure issues included distress in social network, concern for others, and institutional support. Implications for theory and research, use and tailoring of the intervention, and decreasing health disparities are discussed. © 2013 International Communication Association.