247794 Improving Sexual and Reproductive Health Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavior Among Inner-City NY High School Students

Monday, October 31, 2011

Ndidi Iyare , Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY
Little is known about adolescents' knowledge regarding accessing reproductive and sexual health services, and the impact community–based health programs have on this knowledge. This study evaluated the impact of a community-based health education workshop series on adolescents' knowledge, intent and comfort with accessing reproductive and sexual health related services. Students (n=247) from New York City high schools attended a minimum of four 40-minute, interactive workshops conducted at their school facility. The workshops provided comprehensive sex-education on a range of 24 reproductive and sexual health related topics, in the form of presentations, handouts, role play sessions, games and field trips. A pre and post survey design was used to assess participants' change in knowledge on topics related to rights to obtain sexual/ reproductive health services, intent to seek services, and comfort with accessing services. There was a significant change (p<0.05) in knowledge among workshop participants. At the conclusion of the workshop series 61 % of participants provided correct responses to survey questions relative to adolescents' rights to receive reproductive health care services, compared to 28% at workshop initiation. Participants' comfort and confidence in receiving reproductive health services increased after participation in the workshop series, 39% compared 66%. Our results suggest that the program effectively increased participants' knowledge, intent and confidence in regards to accessing reproductive and sexual health services

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs

Learning Objectives:
To describe the implementation of a sexual health workshop series designed to increase knowledge, attitudes and behaviors among inner-city adolescents. To evaluate a community-based sexual health workshop series’ impact on increasing adolescents knowledge and perceived comfort with accessing reproductive health services.

Keywords: Sexual Risk Behavior, School-Based Programs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: during my duties as a Senior Health Educator I oversaw curriculum development as well as the implementation and evaluation of the sexual education workshop series .
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.

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