Cassidy Christine, Steenbeek Audrey, Langille Donald, Martin-Misener Ruth, Curran Janet
School of Nursing, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
JMIR Res Protoc. 2017 Nov 2;6(11):e217. doi: 10.2196/resprot.8326.
University students are at risk for acquiring sexually transmitted infections and suffering other negative health outcomes. Sexual health services offer preventive and treatment interventions that aim to reduce these infections and associated health consequences. However, university students often delay or avoid seeking sexual health services. An in-depth understanding of the factors that influence student use of sexual health services is needed to underpin effective sexual health interventions.
In this study, we aim to design a behavior change intervention to address university undergraduate students' use of sexual health services at two universities in Nova Scotia, Canada.
This mixed methods study consists of three phases that follow a systematic approach to intervention design outlined in the Behaviour Change Wheel. In Phase 1, we examine patterns of sexual health service use among university students in Nova Scotia, Canada, using an existing dataset. In Phase 2, we identify the perceived barriers and enablers to students' use of sexual health services. This will include focus groups with university undergraduate students, health care providers, and university administrators using a semistructured guide, informed by the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behaviour Model and Theoretical Domains Framework. In Phase 3, we identify behavior change techniques and intervention components to develop a theory-based intervention to improve students' use of sexual health services.
This study will be completed in March 2018. Results from each phase and the finalized intervention design will be reported in 2018.
Previous intervention research to improve university students' use of sexual health services lacks a theoretical assessment of barriers. This study will employ a mixed methods research design to examine university students' use of sexual health service and apply behavior change theory to design a theory- and evidence-based sexual health service intervention. Our approach will provide a comprehensive foundation to co-design a theory-based intervention with service users, health care providers, and administrators to improve sexual health service use among university students and ultimately improve their overall health and well-being.
大学生有感染性传播感染疾病及遭受其他负面健康后果的风险。性健康服务提供旨在减少这些感染及相关健康后果的预防和治疗干预措施。然而，大学生往往延迟或避免寻求性健康服务。需要深入了解影响学生使用性健康服务的因素，以支持有效的性健康干预措施。
在本研究中，我们旨在设计一种行为改变干预措施，以解决加拿大新斯科舍省两所大学本科学生使用性健康服务的问题。
这项混合方法研究包括三个阶段，遵循《行为改变轮》中概述的系统干预设计方法。在第1阶段，我们使用现有数据集研究加拿大新斯科舍省大学生使用性健康服务的模式。在第2阶段，我们确定学生使用性健康服务的感知障碍和促进因素。这将包括与本科大学生、医疗保健提供者和大学管理人员进行焦点小组讨论，使用由能力、机会、动机-行为模型和理论领域框架提供信息的半结构化指南。在第3阶段，我们确定行为改变技术和干预组成部分，以制定基于理论的干预措施，以改善学生对性健康服务的使用。
本研究将于2018年3月完成。各阶段的结果和最终确定的干预设计将于2018年报告。
以往旨在改善大学生使用性健康服务的干预研究缺乏对障碍的理论评估。本研究将采用混合方法研究设计，以检查大学生对性健康服务的使用情况，并应用行为改变理论设计基于理论和证据的性健康服务干预措施。我们的方法将提供一个全面的基础，与服务使用者、医疗保健提供者和管理人员共同设计基于理论的干预措施，以改善大学生对性健康服务的使用，最终改善他们的整体健康和福祉。
