Emory University School of Medicine's Jane Fonda Center will partner
with the Rollins School of Public Health and Grady Health System's Teen
Services Clinic to design, implement and evaluate a clinic-based
intervention to improve the use of "dual protection" in young African
American females. The five-year, $3.2 million grant is a collaboration
with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center
for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
"Dual protection means
taking steps to prevent both unintended pregnancies and sexually
transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV," says Melissa Kottke, MD,
MPH, MBA, assistant professor in the Department of Gynecology and
Obstetrics at Emory and principal investigator for this award. "This is
a skill that all people need, but we know that teens and young adults
carry a disproportionate burden of both unintended pregnancy and STDs
and this is amplified for racial and ethnic minorities."
Concretely encouraging
teens to make a decision for dual protection and supporting them in
being consistent in its use is essential, according to Kottke, who is
also the director of the Jane Fonda Center for Adolescent Reproductive
Health at Emory. "We hope this research opportunity will assist us in
adapting the way clinical reproductive health services are provided to
teens."
Clinical reproductive
health services include contraceptive counseling and providing
contraception as well as STD/HIV screenings and treatment, but are often
limited in how they can impact the behaviors of the teen outside the
clinic itself.
Jessica Sales, PhD,
assistant professor of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education in the
Rollins School of Public Health is the co-principal investigator for
this initiative. "One of the most exciting aspects of this project is
that it merges the best of health behavior research and clinical
services," says Sales. "It will be rewarding to see the impact of
providing cutting edge clinical care coupled with what we've seen can
work from behavior change models."
Researchers will spend
the first year-and-a-half of the grant designing the intervention. They
plan to enroll at least 700 sexually active young women, ages 15 to 19.
Participants will be followed for one year after participating in the
intervention.
"Grady Health System's
Teen Services Clinic recognizes that adolescence is a critical window of
time to establish excellent health behaviors," says Fran Baker, RN, BSN,
MBA, executive director of Women and Infant Services at Grady. "We see
that reproductive health is linked to many other individual and
community health issues and are looking forward to helping our young
people succeed."
About the Grady
Teen Services Program:
The Grady Teen Services
Program sees approximately 2,000 teens per year for reproductive health
care. The program has been seeing teens for reproductive health for over
four decades. It is supported by the Title X Family Planning Grant.
About the Jane
Fonda Center:
The Jane Fonda Center for
Adolescent Reproductive Health opened its doors in 2000 with a lead gift
from advocate and actor Jane Fonda. The center's mission is to advance
scientific knowledge about teenagers with an emphasis on adolescent
reproductive health. The center focuses on providing information and
strategies for risk reduction and healthy transitions to adulthood.
About Rollins
School of Public Health:
At the Rollins School of Public Health, students learn to identify,
analyze and intervene in today's most pressing public health issues. The
school is part of Emory University's Woodruff Health Sciences Center,
and its location in Atlanta, referred to as the "Public Health Capital
of the World," also is home to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC); CARE; the national home office of the American Cancer
Society; The Carter Center; the Arthritis Foundation; and numerous state
and regional health agencies.
-Story by Emory
University Woodruff Health Sciences Center
