Mid-life Women: Preventing Unintended Pregnancy and STIs
Condition: Reproductive Health
Study type: Interventional
Phase: Phase 2

Summary: 
      Mid-life women, aged 35-50, are currently an underserved population in the areas of
      unintended pregnancy and STI prevention interventions. Common perception is that women in
      this age range are no longer sexually active, or are past the menopause transition, but in
      reality, sexual activity remains stable through mid-life and into the post-menopausal years.
      Additionally, physiological and relationship status changes (e.g. divorce or death of a
      partner) put these women at increased risk for both unintended pregnancy and STI's. This
      project developed and evaluated a theoretically-based multimedia intervention designed to
      assist mid-life women in protecting themselves from sexually transmitted infections and
      unintended pregnancy.
    

Detailed description: 
      The primary aim of this project was to create and evaluate a theoretically-based, interactive
      multimedia program for women aged 35-55 to assist them in avoiding unintended pregnancy and
      sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The intervention, titled "Women's Reproductive
      Health: A guide to staying healthy," addressed these concerns across the life span and was
      designed to increase knowledge about (a) pregnancy risk; (b) STI risk; (c) strategies to
      prevent STIs and unintended pregnancy; (d) influences of sexual partners on risk reduction
      decisions and behaviors; (e) partner communication techniques; and (f) health care provider
      communication techniques.Overall features of the program include video, interactive tools,
      animations, text information pages, and various links both across and within specific modules
      to link related information. A feature titled "My Notes" allowed the user to save content
      from the program into an easily retrievable repository.

      Motivational videos featuring friendly mid-life hosts could be viewed on the first page of
      each module, as well as on the home page and topic introduction pages. These videos not only
      provided specific information about the content, they also provided message framing and set
      the tone of the program segment. Other videos included testimonials on topics such as
      contraceptive methods, sexually transmitted infections, and other health information.
      Interactive materials include an assessment checklist for STI risk, a quiz to help the user
      identify the types of birth control methods that best fit her lifestyle and preferences, as
      well as several checklists
    

Intervention name(s): Women's Reproductive Health; Online sexual health content
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Targeted text and video information on website for women aged 25-55 to avoid unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections; Online general text-based information about reproductive health issues and strategies for preventing sexually transmitted infections
Other intervention name(s): Women's Reproductive Health: A Guide to Staying Healthy
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Keywords: mid-life women; unintended pregnancy; STI/HIV prevention; intervention; interactive; CD-ROM; multimedia; video