232864 IChoose: Giving New Orleans adolescents a voice in their reproductive health

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Elisabeth Bradner, BA , Mary Amelia Douglas-Whited Community Women's Health Education Center, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Aubrey Cyphert, BS , Mary Amelia Douglas-Whited Community Women's Health Education Center, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Kaye Park, BA , Mary Amelia Douglas-Whited Community Women's Health Education Center, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Maudra Rogers, BS , Mary Amelia Douglas-Whited Community Women's Health Education Center, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Casey Tolosa, MPH , Mary Amelia Douglas-Whited Community Women's Health Education Center, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Ashley Martin, MPH , Mary Amelia Douglas-Whited Community Women's Health Education Center, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Jeanette Magnus, MD, PhD , Mary Amelia Douglas-Whited Community Women's Health Education Center, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Every adolescent needs comprehensive reproductive health education. Multiple indicators show that New Orleans adolescents are not receiving the information necessary to make informed reproductive health decisions. In a post-Hurricane Katrina environmental scan conducted by the Mary Amelia Douglas-Whited Community Women's Health Education Center, adolescents and community leaders conveyed a want for comprehensive adolescent reproductive health programs to combat sexually transmitted infections and teen pregnancy. According to the 2008 Louisiana Health Report Card, the birth rate for mothers in Orleans Parish ages 15-19, was 13.3%, similar to Louisiana as a whole; however in the African-American population, the rate was 19.2%. Additionally, rates of gonorrhea have doubled to 5.1% after Hurricane Katrina. As a response, graduate students built upon established ties and collaborated with three community centers to conduct formative research guided by local adolescent participation to develop an effective reproductive health curriculum tailored to their needs. Community centers provided safe environments for adolescents to voice their ideas, spaces to creatively implement the curriculum, and a way for graduate students to become involved in the community and learn assessment skills.

Learning Objectives:
Identify two strengths, opportunities, or challenges community center involvement brings for facilitating formative research on reproductive health. Compare the purpose of each of the four formative research methods. Discuss three advantages of graduate student involvement in formative research at community centers.

Keywords: Adolescent Health, Reproductive Health Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to present because I am a second year Master of Public Health student, working, through the Mary Amelia Women’s Health Education Center, on this project since the design and implementation stage.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 2018.1: Childhood and Adolescent Issues