None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Sexual activity during adolescence is common in many Pacific countries, however many young people lack adequate knowledge about reproduction and contraception to help protect themselves from unintended pregnancy. Up to a quarter of girls aged 15-19 in this region have already commenced childbearing. Many of these pregnancies are unintended and often have significant consequences for the health and wellbeing of girls and their families. There are a number of peer education programs in the Pacific that aim to improve young people’s knowledge about sexual and reproductive health, howver there are limited examples of programs that focus on preventing unintended pregnancy. In addition, very little research has looked at the effectivess of peer education in this region. This study will trial a peer education program that focuses on prevention of pregnancy, targeting adolescents aged 15-19 years in rural and urban communities of Vanuatu. The program will adapt other successful peer education activities and will include community-based workshops, one-on-one education and counselling, and printed materials. These activities will provide accurate and comprehensive information about reproduction and contraception and also help young people develop interpersonal and negotiation skills. The program aims to improve adolescents’ knowledge and attitudes about contraception with the overall goal of reducing early and unintended pregnancy.
Interventions
This study will assess a participatory health promotion intervention developed by Wan Smolbag Theatre in conjunction with Burnet Institute. The intervention will build on existing peer education models used by Wan Smolbag adapted to incorporate reproduction and family planning. The intervention will be conducted in communities by trained peer educators and will include at least one participatory group workshop (lasting at least 1-2 hours) for adolescents aged 15-19 years, followed by at least tw
This study will assess a participatory health promotion intervention developed by Wan Smolbag Theatre in conjunction with Burnet Institute. The intervention will build on existing peer education models used by Wan Smolbag adapted to incorporate reproduction and family planning. The intervention will be conducted in communities by trained peer educators and will include at least one participatory group workshop (lasting at least 1-2 hours) for adolescents aged 15-19 years, followed by at least two individual sessions (each lasting approximately 1 hour) with a peer educator to provide personalised information, counselling and referral to youth-friendly health services. The workshops and individual sessions will focus on improving knowledge and fostering supportive attitudes towards pregnancy prevention, addressing misconceptions, promotion of voluntary contraception, identification of risk and protective factors, and building interpersonal and negotiation skills. Participants will also be provided with printed resources about sexual and reproductive health and offered condoms and referral to youth-friendly health services. The intervention will be conducted over 2 months, commencing with the community-based workshop, followed by individual sessions at approximately 3-week intervals. There is no maximum number of session that a participant may attend. Details will be recorded by peer educators regarding the length and number of sessions attended by each participant.
Sponsors
Burnet Institute
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Investigator)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
15 Years to 19 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Aged 15-19 years Residing in study communities
Exclusion criteria
Nil
Outcome results
None listed