Behavioral intervention to increase condom use among high-risk female adolescents☆,☆☆,★,★★,♢
Section snippets
METHODS
Sexually active female adolescents seeking care for reproductive health concerns at two family planning clinics and a county STD clinic were screened for endourethral and endocervical infection with Chlamydia trachomatis by means of standard tissue culture techniques.20 C. trachomatis was chosen as the biomarker infection because it is the most common treatable STD among adolescents and its recurrence rate is high enough to allow rate of incident infection to be used in a study of behavioral
RESULTS
Two hundred nine adolescent women with C. trachomatis genitourinary tract infection were enrolled; 112 (54%) returned for a follow-up visit 5 to 7 months later. To examine whether there was identifiable bias associated with attrition, we compared the sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics at enrollment of subjects who had dropped out with those who returned. At enrollment the two groups did not differ significantly in socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, number of sexual partners in
DISCUSSION
Our results indicate that a brief intervention may modify specific condom behaviors of high-risk adolescents; after control for previous condom practices, adolescents who received the intervention reported a threefold greater condom use for vaginal intercourse 6 months later. Condom use was also related to less participation in behavioral risk activities, better attitudes about STDs and condoms, and greater cognitive complexity; use was greater among black subjects. In general, condom use at
Acknowledgements
We thank Carrie Carter and Debra Golden, who served as research assistants, and the staff members of the clinics.
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Cited by (0)
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From the Section of Adolescent Medicine, the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Biostatistics, and the Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, and the Marion County Health Department, Indianapolis, Indiana
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Supported in part by grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (R30/CCR502727), the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease (U01 AI 31494), and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCJ-IN 189596).
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aNow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
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Reprint requests: Donald P. Orr, MD, Director, Section of Adolescent Medicine, Room 1740 N, Indiana University Medical Center, 702 Barnhill Dr., Indianapolis, IN 46202.
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0022-3476/96/$5.00 + 0 9/27/69138