{"title":"Lessons Learned From the Implementation of a School-Based Sexual Health Education Program for Adolescent Girls in Cape Town, South Africa.","authors":"Carey Pike, Chelsea Coakley, Devyn Lee, Derek Daniels, Nadia Ahmed, Miriam Hartmann, Nancy Padian, Linda-Gail Bekker","doi":"10.9745/GHSP-D-23-00026","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Comprehensive sexual education (CSE) is an important approach for health promotion dissemination in schools, particularly when delivered in participatory ways that are sport based, peer or near-peer led, and include concepts of gender and power dynamics. Sufficient attendance at CSE sessions is critical to ensure content exposure and build potential for impact. This article details implementation lessons from the delivery of an after-school, near-peer-led CSE program called SKILLZ during a cluster randomized controlled trial among 40 secondary schools in Cape Town, South Africa. SKILLZ is an evidence-based program previously implemented in similar contexts. Attendance in this study was suboptimal (less than 50%) despite qualitative indications of high acceptability and extensive efforts to adapt implementation and boost attendance. Qualitative and quantitative data gathered during anonymous surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions with participants with high and low attendance records, near-peer coaches, and school staff from both cohorts indicated that poor attendance could be attributed to several factors. Program adaptations, such as delivering difficult-to-access health services before participants attended the SKILLZ program rather than after, may have reduced the incentive for young people to attend the program. Practical barriers to attendance were identified, including security concerns, competing priorities, and unfamiliarity with after-school programming culture in this setting. Community engagement and acceptability of sexual education programs for adolescents alone may be insufficient to ensure program uptake and engagement.</p>","PeriodicalId":12692,"journal":{"name":"Global Health: Science and Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10749656/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Global Health: Science and Practice","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-23-00026","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Comprehensive sexual education (CSE) is an important approach for health promotion dissemination in schools, particularly when delivered in participatory ways that are sport based, peer or near-peer led, and include concepts of gender and power dynamics. Sufficient attendance at CSE sessions is critical to ensure content exposure and build potential for impact. This article details implementation lessons from the delivery of an after-school, near-peer-led CSE program called SKILLZ during a cluster randomized controlled trial among 40 secondary schools in Cape Town, South Africa. SKILLZ is an evidence-based program previously implemented in similar contexts. Attendance in this study was suboptimal (less than 50%) despite qualitative indications of high acceptability and extensive efforts to adapt implementation and boost attendance. Qualitative and quantitative data gathered during anonymous surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions with participants with high and low attendance records, near-peer coaches, and school staff from both cohorts indicated that poor attendance could be attributed to several factors. Program adaptations, such as delivering difficult-to-access health services before participants attended the SKILLZ program rather than after, may have reduced the incentive for young people to attend the program. Practical barriers to attendance were identified, including security concerns, competing priorities, and unfamiliarity with after-school programming culture in this setting. Community engagement and acceptability of sexual education programs for adolescents alone may be insufficient to ensure program uptake and engagement.
期刊介绍:
Global Health: Science and Practice (GHSP) is a no-fee, open-access, peer-reviewed, online journal aimed to improve health practice, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Our goal is to reach those who design, implement, manage, evaluate, and otherwise support health programs. We are especially interested in advancing knowledge on practical program implementation issues, with information on what programs entail and how they are implemented. GHSP is currently indexed in PubMed, PubMed Central, POPLINE, EBSCO, SCOPUS,. the Web of Science Emerging Sources Citation Index, and the USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC).
TOPICS:
Issued four times a year, GHSP will include articles on all global health topics, covering diverse programming models and a wide range of cross-cutting issues that impact and support health systems. Examples include but are not limited to:
Health:
Addiction and harm reduction,
Child Health,
Communicable and Emerging Diseases,
Disaster Preparedness and Response,
Environmental Health,
Family Planning/Reproductive Health,
HIV/AIDS,
Malaria,
Maternal Health,
Neglected Tropical Diseases,
Non-Communicable Diseases/Injuries,
Nutrition,
Tuberculosis,
Water and Sanitation.
Cross-Cutting Issues:
Epidemiology,
Gender,
Health Communication/Healthy Behavior,
Health Policy and Advocacy,
Health Systems,
Human Resources/Training,
Knowledge Management,
Logistics and Supply Chain Management,
Management and Governance,
mHealth/eHealth/digital health,
Monitoring and Evaluation,
Scale Up,
Youth.