Recruiting patients from a sexually transmitted disease clinic to sexual risk reduction workshops: are monetary incentives necessary?

Most patients attending urban STD clinics can benefit from workshops designed to promote sexual health and reduce sexual risk behaviors. However, many patients do not attend such workshops when invited. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of providing a financial incentive on attendance at a sexual risk reduction workshop tailored to patients at an urban STD clinic. A quasi-experimental design with two conditions (incentive vs no incentive) was implemented sequentially with 107 STD clinic patients (58 men, 49 women; 69% African American; mean age = 27 years) reporting risky sexual behavior. Attendance at a subsequent sexual risk reduction workshop served as the key outcome. Results indicated that participants who were provided with a $30 cash incentive were more likely to attend the risk reduction workshop (38%) than participants who were not offered an incentive (9%), chi (1, N = 107) = 12.88, p < .001. Additional analyses confirmed that incentive (AOR = 7.59, p < .001) predicted attendance even after controlling for other significant predictors, namely, employment status (AOR = 3.04, p < .05) and age (AOR = 1.07, p < .05). We conclude that financial incentives are an effective way to increase attendance at sexual risk reduction workshops for at-risk urban populations.