Date of Award
1-1-2024
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Degree Name
Medical Doctor (MD)
Department
Medicine
First Advisor
Alla Vash-Margita
Second Advisor
Meredithe McNamara
Abstract
Adolescents and young adults (AYAs), here defined as aged 13-25 years, face uniquechallenges in accessing sexual and reproductive health information. Interactive internet resources provide a free, private and personalized opportunity to help AYAs make informed contraception choices. We designed an original website called “Teen Health” to provide age-appropriate and evidence-based SRH education to AYAs, as well as an interactive contraception education tool (CET). We introduced “Teen Health” to AYAs in a clinical setting and observed trends in contraception preference after website exposure. We hypothesized that “Teen Health” would support informed contraception decision-making.
A convenience sample of AYAs were recruited from pediatric and adolescent gynecologyand adolescent medicine clinics affiliated with a tertiary care children’s hospital over a six-month period. Participants were asked to provide their contraception preferences before and after website exposure, as well as qualitative feedback on the “Teen Health” website.
128 participants with a mean age of 15.95 years participated in this study. There wasdiverse representation of participant sexualities and gender identities in this study. Pre- and postwebsite exposure contraception preferences were significantly different (P
“Teen Health” was well-received by AYAs in a clinical setting and supports informedcontraception decision-making. There are opportunities to expand this study to encapsulate a broader AYA population.
Recommended Citation
Lepore, Christina, "“Teen Health” Empowers Informed Contraception Decision-Making In Adolescents And Young Adults" (2024). Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library. 4253.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ymtdl/4253
Comments
This is an Open Access Thesis.