Impact of an Integrated Adolescent Reproductive Health Program in Brazil

• Published in: Studies in family planning Vol. 32; no. 3; pp. 230 - 243
• Main Authors: Magnani, Robert J., Gaffikin, Lynne, de Aquino, Estela Maria Leão, Seiber, Eric E., de Conceição Chagas Almeida, Maria, Lipovsek, Varja
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-09-2001; Population Council; John Wiley & Sons, Inc; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior - psychology; Adolescent parenthood; Adolescents; Adult; Birth Control; Brazil; Care and treatment; Child; Condoms; Contraception; Contraception Behavior - psychology; Evaluation; Experimental schools; Female; Health; Health aspects; Health Behavior; Health care industry; Health Education; HIV infection in children; HIV Infections - prevention & control; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Impact analysis; Initiatives; Male; Pediatric HIV infections; Pregnancy; Pregnant girls; Pregnant teenagers; Prevention; Program Evaluation; Public Health; Reproduction; Reproductive health; Reproductive health services; Reproductive Medicine; School Health Services; School surveys; Sex Education; Sexual Behavior; Sexual Behavior - psychology; Sexual Reproduction; Social conditions; Social services; Student surveys; Teachers; Teenage pregnancy; Teenage sexual behavior; Teenage sexual behaviour; Teenagers; Youth; Brazil
• ISSN: 0039-3665; 1728-4465
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1728-4465.2001.00230.x

An impact evaluation of an integrated school- and health-clinic-based adolescent reproductive health initiative was undertaken by the State Secretariats of Health and Education in Bahia, Brazil during 1997-99. The project was initiated in response to continued high pregnancy rates among adolescents and growing numbers of new HIV infections among young adults. It sought to promote responsible sexual and health-seeking behaviors among public secondary-school students, including the use of public health clinics. The study design included a matched control group used to measure project impact. The findings indicate that the project was successful in increasing the flow of sexual and reproductive health information to secondary-school students and that it had an impact on adolescents' intentions to use public health clinics in the future. No effects on sexual or contraceptive-use behaviors or on use of public clinics were observed, however. Client exit-interview data from a subset of project clinics indicate that adolescents who use clinic-based services are overwhelmingly female and considerably older on average and much more likely ever to have been pregnant than are adolescents in the target population for the project.