The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #68886

Matthew Berger, MA¹, Linda Hock-Long, PhD¹, Rebecca Merkh, MA¹, Jacqui Ambrosini², Ani Maitin², and Casey Cook, MSS, MLSP³. (1) Research Department, Family Planning Council, 260 South Broad Street, Suite 1000, Philadelphia, PA 19102, 215-985-2656, matthew@familyplanning.org, (2) Youth Health Empowerment Project, 112 N. Broad Street, 9th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19102, (3) Prevention Point Philadelphia, 333 W. Girard Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19123

The lifestyles of society’s at-risk populations (e.g. exchanging sex for money or drugs) greatly increase their need for reproductive health services. To combat this need, the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) of the Department of Health and Human Services provided a two-year grant to the Family Planning Council in Philadelphia to contract with two local service agencies (Prevention Point Philadelphia [PPP] and Youth Health Empowerment Project [Y-HEP]) to provide free reproductive health services to their clients. PPP protects injection drug users and sexworkers through its Syringe Exchange Program, Harm Reduction Services Center and Street-Side Health Project. Y-HEP is a community-based street outreach project targeting adolescents. Services begin early March 2003.

This grant funds an evaluation of 1) the reasons clients use/don’t use these services and 2) whether the services used are preventive (e.g. contraception) and/or reactive (e.g. disease testing). The clients most likely to use services, and do so preventively, likely have higher self-efficacy; having a more supportive environment, positive attitudes and accurate knowledge about reproductive health increases self-efficacy. At the initiation of services, 200 randomly selected clients at each site will be surveyed on their personal characteristics, sexual behavior and knowledge, substance use and housing situation. Medical chart reviews four months later will enable us to categorize client service usage. We will then randomly survey 400 clients (200 per site) to assess satisfaction with service provision.

The presentation will 1) describe the collaboration and 2) present findings from the first survey wave and chart reviews.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants at this session will be able to:
• 3. Articulate the reproductive health needs and barriers to service of at-risk populations.
  8. Identify the attitudinal, behavioral and social predictors of use of family planning services.
  13. Discuss why clients choose reactive and/or preventive services.

Keywords: Underserved Populations, Reproductive Health Research

Related Web page: www.familyplanning.org www.CritPath.Org/ppp www.yhep.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Prevention Point Philadelphia Youth Health Empowerment Project
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.