A Peer Education Program for Taxicab/Tricycle Drivers and Other Bridge Populations

Investigators: Donald E. Morisky, ScD, ScM, MSPH, Chrystene Nguyen, MPH, Alfonso Ang, PhD, & Teodora V. Tiglao, EdD, MPH

The Peer Education Program aims to decrease sexual risk behaviors (such as unprotected sex) among members of a .bridge. population who are at risk of spreading STIs including HIV between high-risk groups (e.g., commercial sex workers) and the general population (e.g., other sexual partners). The Peer Education Program demonstrated increases in knowledge of HIV/AIDS transmission, positive attitudes toward condom use, and condom use frequency. The program includes a one-day needs assessment, a half-day peer educator information session and recruitment seminar, and a two-day peer educator training. For a year or more, peer educators share HIV prevention knowledge, distribute and promote condoms, and share educator-created prevention materials with coworkers and clients during normal work routines. Peer educators meet with program staff once a week throughout the program implementation to address questions or to problem solve ways to most effectively share safer sex messages with others. The Peer Education Program was originally implemented in the Philippines among drivers in the transportation industry but can readily be adapted to .bridge. populations in other settings and industries. The program.s peer education approach may also be useful in supporting HIV prevention behaviors among peers in many different types of communities and populations. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

AIDS Prevention and Health Promotion among Women

Investigators: Stevan Hobfoll, Anita Jackson, Justin Lavin, & James Shepherd

AIDS Prevention and Health Promotion among Women is designed to assist participants between 16 and 29 years of age in developing and following a sound sexual health plan. Based on the concepts of empowerment, group social support and culturally sensitive skill building, this program comprises four 1 1/2- to 2-hour small (2-8 participant) group sessions conducted over the course of three months. Video segments promote group discussion, spark group role plays and engage participants in cognitive rehearsal and guided exercises designed to encourage healthy choices about one's body and sexuality. Specifically, this program encourages women to think about the physical and emotional consequences of unsafe sex. It helps them achieve a sense of mastery and positive expectations when discussing sexual history, HIV/AIDS testing, monogamy, spermicide and condom use, and other health-related concerns with their partners. In addition, the program teaches participants how to effectively negotiate safer sex with one's partner and maintain safer sex goals. This program was field tested with pregnant low-income African-American and white women who were using medical center obstetrics services in Akron, Ohio. Compared to control groups, participants showed significant and sustained increases in HIV/AIDS knowledge, safer sex goals, and safer-sex behaviors, including spermicide and condom purchases and use. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

AIDS Risk Reduction for College Students

Investigators: Diane I. Kimble Willcutts, Jeffrey Fisher, William Fisher, & Stephen J. Misovich

Originally designed as a workshop for college students, this program consists of three two-hour sessions incorporating information, motivation, and behavioral strategies for AIDS risk reduction. The information component includes "AIDS 101," a slide show that explains the transmission and prevention of HIV, testing for the virus, and the importance of condoms for protection against HIV/AIDS among those who are sexually active. The motivation component is addressed through small-group discussions led by a peer health educator and a video narrated by persons who contracted HIV through unsafe heterosexual intercourse. Finally, behavioral skills development is encouraged through role plays of safe sex communication. In a field study of the program with 744 college students, participants showed significant gains in knowledge, motivation, and behavior; in particular, sexually active participants were more likely than similar control students to purchase and use condoms during a two- to four-month period following the intervention. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Adolescent Decision-Making and Contraceptive Behavior: San Francisco, 1984-1986

Investigators: Nancy E. Adler, Susan M. Kegeles, & Charles E. Irwin, Jr.

This study examined adolescents' decision-making regarding contraceptive use and its relation to their contraceptive and reproductive intentions and actual behavior. The four contraceptive methods most commonly used by adolescents were examined: the pill, diaphragm, condom, and withdrawal. The research used an expended version of the theory of reasoned action. The main hypothesis was that adolescents would engage in active decision-making. It was predicted that adolescents would act rationally and that their contraceptive intentions would follow from their beliefs, values, and perceptions of social norms surrounding the use of contraceptives. Measures included self reports of sexual behavior (e.g., number of partners, frequency of intercourse), contraceptive behavior, prior use of contraception, prior sexual behavior, pregnancy, assessment of decision processes relating to contraceptive use, beliefs and attitudes about and evaluation of the consequences of using contraception, perceptions of the wishes of others regarding the use of contraception, motivation to comply with the wishes of others concerning contraception, views of general social expectations regarding use of contraceptives, and intention to use contraceptives.

Adolescent Sexual Health Resources

Investigators: Sociometrics Corporation

This product consists of 5 resources: (1) 188 Facts About Teen Sex, Contraception, Pregnancy, Parenting, and Sexually Transmitted Infections. This handbook offers an accessible, reliable source of science-based facts on teen sex, contraception, pregnancy, parenthood, and sexually transmitted infections. (2) The Complete HIV/AIDS Teaching Kit. In a concise and convenient format The Complete HIV/AIDS Teaching Kit provides a multidisciplinary approach to teaching the biomedical, social, psychological, and behavioral aspects of HIV transmission, prevention and treatment-offering readers a full understanding of the disease. (3) Adolescent Sexual Health Education: An Activity Sourcebook. This sourcebook contains more than sixty ready-to-use activities to help practitioners educate teens about pregnancy and STD/HIV/AIDS prevention. (4) Model Programs for Adolescent Sexual Health. This is a directory of the most promising and proven effective sexual education and prevention programs in the United States. (5) Assessing Your Community's Needs and Assets: A Collaborative Approach to Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention. This guide will assist you in planning your needs assessment and evaluating the potential intervention strategies for your adolescent pregnancy prevention program.

Alan Guttmacher Institute National Survey of Contraceptive Use Among Women Having Abortions, 1987

Investigators: Stanley K. Henshaw, Jane Silverman, Jacqueline Darroch Forrest and Elise Jones

1987 Alan Guttmacher Institute National Survey of Contraceptive Use Among Women Having Abortions was a project aimed at producing reliable national estimates of contraceptive failure rates, corrected for the underreporting of abortions. Carried out in 1987, this project is a survey of abortion patients that was designed to fill the need for information on contraceptive use at the time of conception for pregnancies that ended in abortion. A total of 9,480 women who visited a provider to have an abortion in 1987 filled out questionnaires that asked about their recent contraceptive use and about the pregnancy being terminated. The inquiry also covered a variety of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics that parallel information obtained from National Survey of Family Growth respondents (see DAAPPP Data Set Nos. 26 and 27).

Alan Guttmacher Institute Survey of Reasons Women Choose Abortion, 1987-1988

Investigators: Aida Torres and Jacqueline Darroch Forrest

By means of a survey of abortion patients, the study addresses the question of why certain women elect to have an abortion. The study also examines why some women who have abortions obtain them fairly late in gestatiton. Nationally, 4% of abortions occur at 16 or more weeks of gestation. Medical data show that the normally low rates of complication and death associated with induced abortion increase substantially at later gestations. In addition, obtaining late abortions poses difficulties because they are more expensive, providers are fewer and harder to find, and many find late abortions more troubling than those performed early in gestation. This study investigates the social and demographic characteristics of women who have late abortions, problems related to access, and personal factors such as the ability to recognize signs of pregnancy.

Alcohol Skills Training Program

Investigators: Alan Marlatt, John S. Baer, Kim Fromme, Mary Larimer, Ellen Williams, & Daniel R. Kivlahan

Guided with the belief that college students can learn to moderate their drinking behavior, this intervention is designed for young people who have experienced negative consequences of alcohol use. The curriculum incorporates basic information and exercises in the areas of addiction, individual drinking cues, skills for resisting alcohol offers, and strategies for relaxation and stress management. Participants are asked to monitor and record their consumption of alcohol for the duration of the program. The program can be implemented with high school students as well. The intervention spans eight sessions. The ASTP program is suitable for university settings as well as social services or community-based organizations. This program was originally presented in eight 90-minute sessions. However, the schedule is flexible and can be adjusted to suit your particular site. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Alternative High School Youth Risk Behavior Study, 1998

Investigators: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) is an epidemiologic surveillance system that was established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to monitor the prevalence of youth behaviors that most influence health. The 1998 national alternative high school Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is one component of the YRBSS. The YRBS focuses on health-risk behaviors established during youth that result in the most significant mortality, morbidity, disability, and social problems during both youth and adulthood. These include: behaviors that result in unintentional and intentional injuries; tobacco use; alcohol and other drug use; sexual behaviors that result in HIV infection, other sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs), and unintended pregnancies; dietary behaviors; and physical activity. Results from the Alternative High School YRBS are used by CDC to: (1) identify the prevalence and age of initiation of priority health-risk behaviors among students attending alternative high schools; and 2) identify the need for school health programs and policies for students attending alternative high schools. Four previous versions of the YRBS have been archived at Sociometrics. The 1992 survey (DAAPPP data set K9), the 1993 (data set M1), 1995 (data set N4), the 1997 (data set P5), and the 1999 (data set P7). Each of these data sets is cross-sectional.

American Housing Survey of the United States, 1999

Investigators: Bureau of the Census for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

The American Housing Survey (AHS) can be used to answer many questions about housing units and households in the United States. The AHS provides data on apartments, single-family homes, mobile homes, vacant homes, family composition, income, housing and neighborhood quality, housing costs, equipment, fuels, size of housing unit, and recent movers. National data are collected every other year from a fixed sample of about 50,000 homes, plus new construction. The survey started in 1973 and has had the same core sample since 1985. The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the surveys in person and by telephone for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The resulting 1999 dataset includes 67,177 cases.