141st APHA Annual Meeting

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288870
“man up monday” - the day dedicated to sexual health

Monday, November 4, 2013

Rachelle Reeder, MPH , The Monday Campaigns, The Monday Campaigns, New York, NY
Morgan Johnson, MPH , The Monday Campaigns, New York, NY
Public health practitioners often struggle with how to reach young men who are at risk for HIV and STDs. One important factor in increasing HIV and STD testing rates is to disseminate health communications about testing when audiences are most receptive to these messages. Practitioners could potentially increase receptivity by answering the following process-related questions: 1) How often should we be sending communications to program participants? and 2) When is the ideal window of time to be delivering these messages? New research shows that sending weekly messages may be an ideal frequency to motivate people to start and maintain healthy sexual behaviors, and Monday may be the best day to deliver such messages. By leveraging the natural tendency to focus on health behaviors at the beginning of the week, sexual health programs can boost participation levels and contribute to establishing habitual thinking about sexual health. Building on this idea, The Monday Campaigns launched “Man Up Monday,” a creative campaign that sends a sex-positive message to young men, encouraging them to use Monday as the day they think about their sexual health choices, get tested for STDs, and restock their condoms. This session describes how organizations such as Planned Parenthood, Murray State University, and others have successfully used “Man Up Monday” to promote their sexual health services and provides evidence for how leveraging the “Monday Effect” can help other organizations increase their testing numbers.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Communication and informatics
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs

Learning Objectives:
Describe the evidence supporting health communications on Mondays and how it applies to sexual health messaging Describe the development and success of the Man Up Monday campaign Discuss ways in which program developers and researchers can leverage the Monday concept to improve outcomes with their own sexual health programs

Keywords: Communication, STD Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As the Program and Research Associate at The Monday Campaigns, I have been involved with pilot recruitment, program implementation, and campaign evaluation for Man Up Monday, and can speak in detail about it. I have my MPH and a background in health communications and social marketing as well as research in the area of HIV and STDs among various populations.
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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