Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #112578

P.A. Russell-Brown, Jamaica Adolescent Reproductive Health Project, 2-4 King Street, 5th Floor, Kingston, Jamaica, 876-948-2150, paulinerb@jamweb.net, Beryl Weir, Women's Centre of Jamaica Foundation, 42 Trafalgar Road, Kingston, Kingston 10, Jamaica, and Larry Gibbs, Department of Sociology, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston, Kingston 7, Jamaica.

Background: Globally, efforts to reach male adolescents with reproductive health information and services have not been encouraging. In 2002, the Women's Centre of Jamaica Foundation, known for its work with teenage mothers, implemented an outreach and education intervention for young men at risk in two cities in Jamaica. Twenty young men ages 17-25 years were recruited from youth groups in each city, trained as peer educators and deployed to reach male adolescents in youth groups with RH information, condoms and referral. Goal/Objectives: The goal of the intervention was to positively change reproductive health knowledge, attitudes and behaviors, specifically, HIV transmission, contraceptive knowledge and correct condom use, through education and outreach, and positive role modeling. Methods: A pre-post-test research design was used to evaluate the intervention. A baseline survey of 420 males was conducted in 2002. Fielding of the endline survey one year later was challenged by community violence. Results: In the face of many obstacels, at endline, significant changes in knowledge of HIV transmission and correct condom use was reported; 4000 condoms were distributed by peer educators in a six-month period. Qualitatively, the intervention had a positive effect on the peer educators also. Recommendations and Policy Implications: Men in especially vulnerable situations are not often reached with accurate RH information. This intervention demonstrated that peer education is viable approach for reaching at risk male adlescents with information and services. Adolescent-serving CBOs and NGOs should be encouraged and enabled to adopt this approach.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to

• describe key program and environmental challenges to planning and implementing a community peer education program for male adolescents in a developing country setting and ways of managing the challenges for success.

Keywords: Peer Education,

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.