Evaluating the effectiveness of a tailored reproductive-life planning self-help workbook: Preliminary findings from a pilot study being implemented in Greensboro, NC

Background: We developed and assessed a tailored reproductive-life planning (RLP) workbook in response to the CDC recommendations for evidence-based preconception health tools. This study reports preliminary findings from the revised RLP workbook pilot study.

Intervention: The workbook contains reproductive health information tailored for women across the reproductive-life span: want (more) children now; want (more) children, but not now; do not want any (more) children; unable to have (more) children.

Methods: A longitudinal quasi-experimental design is being implemented. Participants were recruited from a community women’s health organization and followed for 6-months.  At baseline all women received a RLP workbook and were allocated to treatment 1 (i.e., workbook and monthly reminders) or treatment 2 (i.e., workbook only).

Results: Most participants were African American, low-income, and cohabitating. At baseline, most (80%) reported “wanting children, but not now” as their reproductive-life goal; about half had already developed a RLP. Among those who had not developed a RLP, 83.3% reported they would like to take steps towards accomplishing their goal. While the study is ongoing we hypothesize that at the 6-month follow-up, women will report an increase in developing and actualizing their RLP, increased self-efficacy to seek care, with a moderate increase in communication with health care providers. We anticipate that women in treatment 1 will report higher impacts compared to treatment 2.

Conclusion: We will discuss the utility of using this RLP workbook with low-income women with varying reproductive-life goals develop their own personalized RLP, including communicating more effectively with their health care provider.