The Effect of Interprofessional Student-Led Reproductive Health Education on Youths in Juvenile Detention.

STUDY OBJECTIVE

To assess the effects of an interprofessional student-led comprehensive sexual education curriculum in improving the reproductive health literacy among at-risk youths in detention.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: We performed a prospective cohort study involving 134 incarcerated youth and an interprofessional team of 23 medical, nursing, and social work students, who participated in a comprehensive reproductive health curriculum over the course of 3 days.

INTERVENTIONS, AND MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Basic reproductive health knowledge, confidence in condom use with a new partner, and self-efficacy with regard to contraception use and sexual autonomy were assessed before and after completion of the curriculum. We also assessed the student teachers' level of comfort with teaching reproductive health to adolescents and their perception of interprofessionalism.

RESULTS

Incarcerated youth showed a statistically significant increase in knowledge regarding sexually transmitted infections as well as self-reported confidence in condom use (P = .002). Self-efficacy in contraception use and sexual autonomy did not show significant improvement. Qualitative analysis of student teachers' surveys revealed theme categories regarding perception of youth, perception of self in teaching youth, perception of interacting with youth, and perception of working in interprofessional teams.

CONCLUSIONS

Our program might represent a mutually beneficial community relationship to improve reproductive health literacy in this high-risk youth population.