Safer Sex

An Evidence-Based Practice

Description

The goal of Safer Sex is to increase condom use, prevent recurrent STDs, and eliminate or reduce risky sexual behaviors among adolescent females that have been diagnosed with an STD.

The intervention begins with a video that aims to normalize condom use and provides information about condoms, such as types of condoms, purchasing, condom negotiation, and demonstration of proper condom use. After viewing the video, each participant completes a self-assessment to determine their stage of readiness for changing their sexual behaviors. Next, a female health educator reviews the video and discusses abstinence and STD transmission while ensuring that the information they are providing is appropriate for each participant’s stage of readiness to change. Participants are given condoms and written materials about safer sex and attend booster sessions with the educator one, three, and six months after the initial session.

Goal / Mission

The goal of the Safer Sex project is to increase condom use, prevent recurrent STDs, and eliminate or reduce risky sexual behaviors among adolescent females that have been diagnosed with an STD.

Impact

The Safer Sex project shows that individualized safer sex interventions may improve condom use and decrease the number of partners among adolescent girls who have had an STD.

Results / Accomplishments

Three months after the second booster session, intervention participants were significantly less likely to report having a non-main sexual partner when compared to control participants (p=0.01).

About this Promising Practice

Primary Contact
Dr. Lydia Shrier
Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine, Children’s Hospital
300 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
(617) 355-7181
SaferSex@childrens.harvard.edu
Topics
Health / Adolescent Health
Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases
Health / Prevention & Safety
Source
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Date of publication
Jan 2001
Date of implementation
1996
Geographic Type
Urban
Location
Boston, MA
For more details
http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/155/1/73....
Target Audience
Teens, Women
Additional Audience
diagnosed with an STD

Related Promising Practices

  1. The Youthnet Trials
  2. Adolescents Living Safely
  3. HORIZONS
  4. Poder Latino: Community AIDS Prevention Program for Inner-City Latino Youth
  5. CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Prevention of HIV/AIDS, other STIs and Pregnancy: Group-Based Comprehensive Risk Reduction Interventions for Adolescents
  6. Behavioral Intervention to Prevent STDs among Minority Women in Texas

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Related Content for: Safer Sex

An Evidence-Based Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures showing improvement in the outcome(s) of interest after the implementation of the program (i.e. increase in smoking cessation, not just the delivery of a smoking cessation program). The outcome measure(s) is/are compared at relevant time periods before and after the intervention or program implementation. Alternatively, the evaluation study compares the outcome(s) between an intervention group and an appropriate control group.
  3. The study is of peer-review quality and presents numbers in a scientific manner; measurements of precision and reliability are included (e.g. confidence intervals, standard errors), results from statistical tests show a significant difference or change in the outcome measure(s), and relevant point estimates and p-values are presented. Note: if the results from an evaluation of a program are presented in a scientific manner and the outcome measure is improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant, the practice is classified as effective and not evidence-based.