INTRODUCTION: HIV disproportionately affects African Americans, Latinos, and gay and bisexual men of all racial and ethnicity groups. People living with HIV/AIDS experience stigma related to their disease. HIV/AIDS stigma can have detrimental effects on HIV prevention, testing and treatment. Entertainment-education is a health communication strategy that can be used to influence behavioral and social change in the population.

AIM: The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether a Motion Comic intervention, an EE strategy, can decrease H/A stigma in a sample of MSM adolescents aged 15-24.

METHODS: Participants were recruited from GA, FL, NY and CA using convenience sampling. A sample of MSM adolescents aged 15-24 (n=24) was used for this study. The study design is a one-group pretest-posttest intervention. Participants were shown the Motion Comic episodes. Participants completed pre- and post-viewing surveys to assess HIV/AIDS stigma. A summed variable was used as the outcome for total HIV/AIDS stigma. A paired samples t-test was used to measure a statistically significant difference in HIV/AIDS stigma from pretest to posttest.

RESULTS: There was a statistically significant decrease in HIV stigma from pre-viewing survey (M = 9.87, SD = 3.49) to post-viewing survey (M = 8.65, SD = 2.48), t (22) = 2.01, p < .0285 (one-tailed). The mean decrease in HIV stigma scores was 1.22 with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 0.177 to 2.248. The eta squared statistic (.16) indicated a large effect size.

DISCUSSION: Results from this study show that viewing the Motion Comic may reduce HIV/AIDS stigma related to casual transmission of HIV and values, such as blame, shame and judgment, in MSM adolescents.