267539 Speak UP! Salon Project: Utilizing Hair Stylists to Deliver Health Education Messages about Reducing Unintended Pregnancy

Wednesday, October 31, 2012 : 9:15 AM - 9:30 AM

Susan Roberts-Dobie, PhD, CHES , Division of Health Promotion and Education, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA
Mary Losch, PhD , Center for Social & Behavioral Research, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA
The Speak UP! Salon Project was a lay health educator program run in 60 salons in nine Iowa counties from 2009-2011. Stylists were trained to deliver five messages related to reducing unintended pregnancies to female clients aged 18-30. Mirror clings, freebies, and brochures were developed to support stylists' message delivery. Cross-sectional data were collected annually via a web-based questionnaire (n = 83, 99, and 82, respectively). Results indicate that as the project became more institutionalized in the salons, clients and stylists became more engaged. Over time, clients were significantly more likely to report both seeing and picking up brochures about local family planning clinics. Significant increases were not found among clients noticing mirror clings or receiving a freebie from a stylist likely owing to high report at the outset (83%, 81.5%, and 86.5% reported noticing mirror clings and 78.5%, 83.1%, 91.4% reported receiving a freebie from their stylist). The number of clients who reported engaging in a discussion about birth control or unintended pregnancy with their stylist during their last salon visit trended higher over time (48%, 51%, 59%) but these differences were not significant. There was a significant increase over time in the number of clients reporting having talked with a health care provider about birth control info received at the salon. Discussion will include additional findings and suggestions for salon recruitment and types of salons best targeted for interventions.

Learning Areas:
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
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
1. Identify 3 types of outreach materials to utilize in a salon setting. 2. Describe barriers to implementing a salon-based health education project. 3. Describe methods to recruit stylists to participate in a lay health educator program.

Keywords: Community Research, Contraceptives

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the project director of a multi-year research project focusing on the use of hair stylists to reduce unintended pregnancies.
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.