Health professionals have important roles to play in educating their clients about HIV prevention. However, research suggests that health professionals, including dental professionals, more often than not fail to provide any HIV education to their clients. This study employed Green and Kreuter's PRECEDE model to assess those factors that influence the provision of HIV education by dental hygienists in Virginia.

A 22 item closed-ended questionnaire which addressed predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors was mailed to 649 randomly selected Virginia licensed dental hygienists. Fifty-five percent (360) of those contacted completed and returned the questionnaire.

Key factors found to impact the provision of HIV education by dental hygienists were having received HIV education during formal training or continuing education courses, perceived self efficacy to deliver HIV education, and characteristics of the practice setting. Chi square analysis showed that dental hygienists with formal HIV education were more likely to educate their clients about HIV risk reduction than dental hygienists who had not received such education (p=.04). Dental hygienists who had received HIV education through continuing education were also more likely to provide HIV education to their clients than dental hygienists who had not (p=.05).