Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Jan 30, 2020
Date Accepted: May 12, 2020
In the Know: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial of an Intervention Integrating Technology and In-person Sexual Health Education for Adolescents
ABSTRACT
Background:
Access to a smartphone is nearly universal among American adolescents, and most have used the internet to seek health information. Integrating digital technologies into health program delivery may expand opportunities for youth to receive important health information.
Objective:
The purpose of our study is to assess the effectiveness of In the Know, a program integrating in-person and technology-based sexual health education for underserved adolescents.
Methods:
Youth were engaged in the development of the intervention, including the design of the digital technology and the curriculum content. The intervention focuses on three main areas: sexual health and contraceptive use, healthy relationships, and educational and career success. It includes an in-person, classroom component, along with an online component to complement and reinforce key content. A cluster randomized controlled trial is in progress among adolescents aged 13–19 living in Fresno County, California. It is designed to examine differences in self-reported health and behavioral outcomes among youth in the intervention and control groups at 3 and 9 months. Key outcomes are condom/contraceptive use or no sex in the past 3 months and use of any clinical health services in the past 3 months.
Results:
Enrollment of trial participants began in October 2017 and is expected to end in March 2020. Study results will be available in 2021.
Conclusions:
In the Know has the potential to improve contraceptive and clinic use among underserved youth. This trial will inform future youth-focused health interventions that are considering incorporating technology. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03765255; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03765255 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/73c917wAw)
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.