Effectiveness of a brief curriculum to change young African American men's sexual/reproductive health and healthcare behaviors

Background: African American (AA) men aged 15-24 have significant unmet sexual/reproductive health (SRH) needs including high STI, HIV and unintended pregnancy rates and is one of the lowest users of healthcare. Methods: Intervention conducted in community-based general educational development and life-skills setting using two-group quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design. Health class served as unit of recruitment. At baseline, 197 AA young men agreed to complete survey (88% participation rate) assessing demographic characteristics and SRH-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors and then received brief 3-session SRH curriculum (n=98) or control condition (n=99). Three months later (follow-up), 76% of participants completed the same survey. Regression with random effects estimated individual odds for each outcome among participants in experimental compared to control condition from baseline to follow-up. Results: Significant improvements in SRH knowledge and condom and healthcare behaviors were observed from baseline to follow-up among experimental versus control conditions, controlling for baseline factors. Specifically, compared to a male in control condition, a male in experimental condition was 57% more likely to report increases in SRH and care knowledge (adjusted Odds Ratio [95% Confidence Interval]= 1.57 [1.44-1.71] and 1.57 [1.40-1.76], respectively), 84% more likely to report increases in condom use (1.84 [1.24-2.73]), 48% more likely to report increases in talking to a provider about STIs/contraception (1.48 [1.22-1.80]) and more likely to report increases in getting an STI/HIV check (18.98 [4.01-89.89]), from baseline to follow-up. Conclusion: This study found a brief SRH intervention can improve health and healthcare outcomes and has implications for community-based organizations serving similar populations.