Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Vol. 23, No. 4, 2000 HIV Risk Sensitization Following a Detailed Sexual Behavior Interview: A Preliminary Investigation Lance S. Weinhardt, 1,3 Kate B. Carey, 2 and Michael P. Carey 2 Accepted for publication: January 29, 2000 We administered a detailed structured interview of sexual HIV risk behav- ior to 110 college students (46% women; mean age = 19.7 years; range = 18–41 years) and assessed their perceived risk of HIV infection before and after the interview. The sexual behavior assessment consisted of 29 single-item frequency questions, followed by a 90-day Timeline Followback interview. Results indicate that sexually active participants experienced HIV risk sensiti- zation during the interview, whereas participants who were not sexually active did not. Among the sexually active participants, those who had multiple sex- ual partners were more sensitized to their risk than participants with only one partner, and those who engaged in vaginal sex evidenced increased risk per- ception, but participants who had only oral sex did not. These findings indicate that detailed sexual behavior assessments influence participants’ motivation to reduce their risk behavior. This may be helpful in increasing the effectiveness of brief risk behavior interventions such as HIV counseling and testing. These findings may also have implications for the generalizability of HIV prevention interventions to contexts that do not include such detailed assessments. KEY WORDS: HIV; HIV risk behavior; HIV risk sensitization; Timeline Followback sexual behavior interview. 1 Syracuse University and Center for AIDS Intervention Research (CAIR), Medical College of Wisconsin. 2 Center for Health and Behavior, Syracuse University. 3 To whom correspondence should be addressed at Center for AIDS Intervention Research, Medical College of Wisconsin, 2071 North Summit Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202. Fax: (414) 287-4206. e-mail: lsw@mcw.edu. 393 0160-7715/00/0800-0393$18.00/0 C  2000 Plenum Publishing Corporation