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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Lorelei Goodyear, MPH¹, C.Y. Gopinath, BA¹, Anne Kaufman, BA², Sanju Bhattarai, BA³, and Allison Bingham, PhD¹. (1) PATH, 1455 NW Leary Way, Seattle, WA 98107, 206-285-3500, lgoodyear@path.org, (2) Consultant, Lazimpat, Kathmandu, Nepal, (3) Family Health Division, TCIC, Teku, Kathmandu, Nepal

Nepal's maternal mortality rate is among the highest in Asia. The official estimate is 539 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births; unofficial estimates are as high as 1,300 per 100,000 in remote rural areas. In partnership with Nepali nongovernmental organizations and the Government of Nepal, PATH piloted innovative interpersonal communication activities to increase women's power to exercise their rights to use effective contraception and access newly legal abortion services. Dialogue groups create a safe space in which women, men, and youth can learn about their bodies and the health services available in their communities; discuss their relationships and controversial reproductive health (RH) issues; examine barriers to healthier RH behaviors; and share experiences and diverse solutions to complex RH problems. The final evaluation results of the pilot project and plans for scale up are presented.

Learning Objectives:

Learning objectives include increasing understanding of
• familial, social and community-level barriers that prevent adoption of healthier behaviors, such as use of family planning or safe abortion services;
• the complexity of the individual behavior change process and of changing broader social norms;
• the need to augment information dissemination and mass media campaigns to achieve behavior change;
• techniques to deepen conversation and change attitudes and behaviors; and
• the effect of dialogue groups on changing group and individual attitudes and behavior related to family planning and decisions about unintended pregnancies in Nepal.

Keywords: Abortion, Community-Based Health Promotion

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered