Reported behavioural outcomes from RCT of a specially designed
teacher-delivered sex education programme (SHARE) in Scotland: outcomes 2.5
years post-intervention
M. Henderson
Medical Research Council Social & Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow,
Scotland, UK
Objectives: Despite widespread support for school sex education,
evidence of effectiveness from rigorous evaluations is still very limited. The
purpose of this is to add to the current evidence by presenting the results of a
RCT that rigorously evaluated the effectiveness of a theoretically-based
teacher-delivered sex education programme for 13–15 year olds (SHARE) in
Scotland. The SHARE programme (20-session pack and five-day teacher training
course) was developed and carefully piloted over two years. A RCT of the SHARE
was conducted from 1996 – 2004. This paper will describe the behavioural
outcomes of the RCT 2.5 years post-intervention, these include, sexual
experience, use of sexual health services, levels (and type) of contraceptive
use, experience of pregnancy, regret of sexual experience and quality of
relationships.
Design & Methods: Twenty-five schools were assigned by a balanced
randomisation either to deliver SHARE or to continue with their existing sex
education. All third year pupils in two successive years were invited to
participate in the study. Participants were first followed-up, 6 months post
intervention (results already in public domain) and then again at second
follow-up, 2.5 years post-intervention. The pre-intervention and first follow-up
questionnaires were conducted in school classrooms under examination conditions.
As the pupils had all left school by second follow-up, postal questionnaires
were sent to the study participants.
Results: At baseline predictors of sexual experience (parenting and
socio-economic) were very well balanced between the arms of the trial. Outcomes
at first follow-up were within the range predicted for sample size calculations
and allow us to report the effect of the SHARE programme with the accuracy we
had expected at the planning stage. At the second follow-up, 2,863 respondents
completed the survey. Weighting will be used to adjust for attrition. The median
age at second follow-up was 18 years, 2 months. Analysis of the behavioural
outcomes at second follow-up is ongoing. For information, at first follow- up
29% of males and 39% of females reported experience of sexual intercourse, these
rates will be higher at second follow-up and therefore the analysis of
behaviours such as condom use will be conducted on a higher proportion of the
sample.
Conclusions: Analysis by arms of the trial will allow us to report at
the Conference the effect of the SHARE Programme on the sample at 2 years 6
months post-intervention. These findings will be discussed in terms of their
implications for the efficacy of the programme, the extent and quality of its
delivery, and possible limitations in evaluation design.
