Sexually Transmitted Disease: Chlamydia Trachomatis

Description of Project

Among black women aged 15-24 years in Illinois (P), does health education and counseling (I) compared to no information (C) lead to increased use of condoms (O) over a period of six months (T)?

Clinical Question

• Planned Intervention: This project aims to determine the effect of health education and counseling in comparison to condom distribution on sexual behavior change.
• Type of study: Quasi-experimental
• Evaluating outcomes: Repeated measures before and after the intervention will be used to evaluate outcomes by determining changes in knowledge, perceptions, attitudes, and behavior.
• Statistical Analysis: Both descriptive and inferential statistics will be carried out to describe the population and establish relationships respectively (McNabb, 2015).
• Reasonable Timeline: This study will be conducted for a period of 6 months. However, after three months data will be collected to determine short-term effects. Also, in the sixth month, data will be collected to determine the long-term effects.
• Expenses: Expenses to be considered include the development of data collection tools, precisely, the typing and printing of the questionnaire, stationery, and the tape recorder. Also, I will need a research assistant and statistician to aid in data collection and data analysis respectively. The venue where the meetings with the participants will take place and the time required to collect is part of the expenses. The table below highlights these expenses in detail:

• Funding source: At the moment I am the one responsible for funding my project, but I will consider making applications to government institutions in the search for the funds.

Outcomes to be Analyzed

• Socio-demographic and Historical Data: This information helps an individual to understand the nature of his or her population. All research studies contain this type of data as it helps the researcher and authoritative figures to understand the population and decipher the general population for which the results can be generalized. Descriptive statistics in terms of percentages, mean, mode, median, ratios, and proportions will be used to understand the nature of the population.
• Knowledge: Gain in knowledge in relation to the importance of condom use during sexual activity will be determined. A paired t-test will be used to check for statistical difference between the first and subsequent measures (Institute for Digital Research and Education, 2016).
• Cultural Influences: Differences in the influences of cultural influences between groups will be determined using a paired t-test.
• Attitude: A paired t-test will be used to determine the differences in the mean for the attitude variable before and after the intervention.
• Behavior change: Upon determining the normality of the data based on age, I will either use regression analysis or chi-square goodness-of-fit to check for the best line of fit and goodness of fit respectively among the variables (Pennsylvania State University, 2008). Behavior change will be based on the relationship between evaluation tests after the health education and counseling intervention with the studied variables. This will be compared with the relationship between the number of condoms distributed and variables tested. The reason for taking this approach is because improved attitudes and perceptions, reduced cultural influences, and increased knowledge levels are likely to result in behavior change.
• Demographic Data Targeted: Guided by Dobronte (2013), the following variables will be of important consideration in reference to socio-demographic information.
• Age: This will help to ensure that the studied population is within the targeted population of 15-24 years.
• Gender: This study targets only the female adolescents and young adults.
• Racial Orientation: Only African American young women are relevant for the study.
• Expected Outcomes: The intervention is meant to result in better attitudes and perceptions, increase individuals’ levels of knowledge on the need and importance of condoms, and reduce cultural influences on individuals’ decisions regarding condom use.

References

Dobronte, A. (2013). The importance of socio-demographics in online surveys. Web.

Institute for Digital Research and Education. (2016). What statistical analysis should I use? Statistical analyses using SPSS. Web.

McNabb, D. E. (2015). Research methods in public administration and nonprofit management: Quantitative and qualitative approaches (3^rd ed.). New York: Routledge.

Pennsylvania State University. (2008). Relationships between two variables. Web.