Journal of Contraception Reproductive Health Care - The European ...

The 8th Congress of The European Society of Contraception Abstracts of Free Communications
FC2-06
Teen4.info: a qualitative study to develop and evaluate of a reproductive health website developed in
partnership with teenagers and young parents from Oxford and Great Yarmouth
C. Pyper (1), P. Johnson (2), J. Knight (1), C. Crook (3), S. Kaduskar (4), A. Boutyeb (5)
Department of Public Health, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus, Oxford, OX3 7LF, UK (1); Department of Obstetrics &
Gynaecology, University of Oxford, Oxford Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK (2); Bury Knowle Health Centre, Oxford, UK (3); Consultant
to Bury Knowle Health Centre, Oxford, UK (4); Young parent support worker, Bury Knowle Health Centre, Oxford, UK (5); Funding:
British Telecom Higher Education Award & DoH Teenage Pregnancy Unit, DLM Trust
Introduction: The UK has the highest incidence of teenage pregnancy in Europe, which contributes to a high proportion of
socially disadvantaged single parents. In addition to unhealthy lifestyles many are also infrequent attendees of antenatal health care
systems and have poor pregnancy and perinatal outcomes, which may have long-term health, social and economic consequences.
Aim: To use website technology and a participatory approach to improve health promotion about Reproductive Health including:
reproductive & sexual health; access to local groups and services and accesses to educational and vocational training opportunities.
Design and setting: A qualitative study in primary health care centres.
Subjects: Teenagers and young parents living in Oxford and Great Yarmouth.
Methods: The research involves the development and evaluation of information about reproductive health relevant to the target
groups. The facilitators and support workers from the project team and young parents from each of the communities involved
are working together to develop the pilot website A variety of methods is being used to support the participants in the development
and co-ordination of the website, including facilitated group discussion, personal stories (narratives) and frequently asked
questions. The information is frequently displayed as a series of images to assist those with low literacy skills. The participatory
techniques used ensure that the content and design of the information is locally relevant and easily understood by the target
group. An example of the information currently under development can be viewed at the website: www.Teen4.info. The
website includes a locally relevant section for each community and a ‘core’ section (or hub) which is focussing on general issues
developed in collaboration between the communities.
Evaluation: An initial evaluation of the teenage website project has been completed. A questionnaire survey and focus groups
with teenagers and young parents who to date have not been involved in the development of the content of the web-site is
being conducted in order to gain further understanding about the social, health and educational needs of teenagers who are
vulnerable to becoming parents.
Results: The evaluation will describe the key lessons learnt under five headings: historical development of the website; the facilitators’
experience of involvement; the participants’ experience of involvement; the participatory methodology of the facilitation process; the
development of ideas and concepts tried and revised. We will also present preliminary findings from the questionnaire survey
Conclusion: A reproductive health website needs to be dynamic and responsive to the needs of local groups. Many young
people prefer images and photos to large amounts of written text. There is a need for peer group support workers to facilitate
young parenting groups. There is a need for designers involved with the website development to become IT support workers
and work directly with the groups. The process of developing the website in a participatory way is method for delivering a
health promotion to disadvantaged young parents.
FC2-07
Effects of a gender-specific sexual health promotion program (‘female doctor’s lesson’) in schools
C. Klapp (1,2), G. Gille (2), C. Thomas (3), I. Schönborn (1)
Department of Obstetrics, Charité Virchow Hospital, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany (1); Medical Association of Women’s Health
Promotion, GGF e.V. Düsseldorf, Germany (2); Research Unit Child and Adolescent Health, Robert Koch Institute Berlin, Germany (3)
Introduction: Numbers of pregnancies and abortions in young girls - particularly in very young girls from 10 to 14 years of age
- have increased rapidly since 1996.
Girls in that age group seem to overestimate their knowledge concerning sexuality, pregnancy and contraception as well as
STDs. We deal with a media-experienced generation, who has heard a lot but understood very few and feel highly under pressure
to have their own sexual experiences very early.
Aims and methods: 1.911 students grade 6 and grade 9/10 (aged 10 to 18) were randomized into intervention and control
groups. The intervention group attended a special ‘doctor’s lesson’ Pre (T1) and post (T3) intervention questionnaires (T1-T3=2
weeks) combined 57 items covering actual knowledge, 62 items for actual feelings and attitudes and 14 epidemiologic items.
After the interventional lesson (T2) the students had to rate the comprehensibility and usefulness of this lesson.
Results: At T 1, before intervention, we found large knowledge deficiencies in both groups. Only 39% of the answers were
correct. In 90% comprehensibility and usefulness of the intervention was estimated as good and very good.
In grade 6 more than 50% of the girls didn’t know about the first menstruation being connected to the possibility of getting
pregnant. So did 25% of the girls in grade 9/ 10. Two weeks after our interventional lesson 88% of the younger and 91% of the
older girls were able to answer the questions properly. The same lack in general knowledge could be observed with respect to
topics like ‘morning after pill’s, ’menstruation’ and ‘sexually transmitted diseases’.
After a 90 minutes intervention, the overall increase of knowledge was extremely high with 32% in grade 9/ 10 and 84% in grade 6.
Discussion: Age related medical information by female doctors for female students - empathic, but competent – could improve
the knowledge of students effectively and could therefore play an important role in the promotion of sexual health and primary
prevention of pregnancy in young girls.
36 The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care