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Youth United Through Health Education (YUTHE) Program

An Effective Practice

Description

Youth United Through Health Education (YUTHE) is a community-level peer outreach program, which aims to increase awareness and improve screening of sexually transmitted infections. The program focuses on urban African-American adolescents.

Sexually experienced youth aged 12-22 years met with peers during a 15-minute encounter. Participants completed a risk assessment and received prevention education and condom distribution.

Goal / Mission

The goal of the program is to increase awareness of screening for sexually transmitted infections in African-American adolescents.

Results / Accomplishments

1,483 adolescents were involved in the program evaluation, split into control and intervention groups.

Although no increase was seen in screenings among the intervention group, those who were involved in the program were more likely to know that sexually transmitted diseases could be asymptomatic (odds ratios [OR] 1.36, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.08–1.72). They were also more likely to be aware of urine-based sexually transmitted screening tests (OR 1.34, 95% CI 1.04–1.72), perceived themselves as at-risk of sexually transmitted infection (OR 1.71, 95% CI 1.11–2.62), and were concerned about acquiring an infection (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.04–2.18).

Additionally, participants who were exposed to the YUTHE program once (OR = 2.12, 95% CI = 1.11-4.03) or more (OR 2.78, 95% CI 1.81–4.26), were more likely to have been tested for sexually transmitted infections in the previous six months.

About this Promising Practice

Organization(s)
Youth United Through Health Education (YUTHE)
Primary Contact
Dr. Cherrie Boyer
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Adolescent Medicine, UCSF
3333 California Street, Suite 245
San Francisco, CA 94143-0503
boyerc@peds.ucsf.edu
Topics
Health / Adolescent Health
Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases
Community / Civic Engagement
Organization(s)
Youth United Through Health Education (YUTHE)
Source
Journal of Adolescent Health
Date of publication
11/30/2006
Geographic Type
Urban
Location
San Francisco
For more details
Target Audience
Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities