This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (1)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related letters  • Related articles  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Sexually Transmitted Diseases  • Patient-Physician Relationship/ Care  • Patient Education/ Health Literacy  • Pediatrics  • Adolescent Medicine  • Randomized Controlled Trial  • Infectious Diseases  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

A Randomized Controlled Trial With Young Adolescents

John B. Jemmott III, PhD; Loretta S. Jemmott, PhD, RN; Geoffrey T. Fong, PhD

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2010;164(2):152-159.

Objective  To evaluate the efficacy of an abstinence-only intervention in preventing sexual involvement in young adolescents.

Design  Randomized controlled trial.

Setting  Urban public schools.

Participants  A total of 662 African American students in grades 6 and 7.

Interventions  An 8-hour abstinence-only intervention targeted reduced sexual intercourse; an 8-hour safer sex–only intervention targeted increased condom use; 8-hour and 12-hour comprehensive interventions targeted sexual intercourse and condom use; and an 8-hour health-promotion control intervention targeted health issues unrelated to sexual behavior. Participants also were randomized to receive or not receive an intervention maintenance program to extend intervention efficacy.

Outcome Measures  The primary outcome was self-report of ever having sexual intercourse by the 24-month follow-up. Secondary outcomes were other sexual behaviors.

Results  The participants' mean age was 12.2 years; 53.5% were girls; and 84.4% were still enrolled at 24 months. Abstinence-only intervention reduced sexual initiation (risk ratio [RR], 0.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.48-0.96). The model-estimated probability of ever having sexual intercourse by the 24-month follow-up was 33.5% in the abstinence-only intervention and 48.5% in the control group. Fewer abstinence-only intervention participants (20.6%) than control participants (29.0%) reported having coitus in the previous 3 months during the follow-up period (RR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.90-0.99). Abstinence-only intervention did not affect condom use. The 8-hour (RR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.92-1.00) and 12-hour comprehensive (RR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.91-0.99) interventions reduced reports of having multiple partners compared with the control group. No other differences between interventions and controls were significant.

Conclusion  Theory-based abstinence-only interventions may have an important role in preventing adolescent sexual involvement.

Trial Registration  clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00640653

Author Affiliations: School of Medicine and Annenberg School for Communication (Dr J. B. Jemmott), and School of Nursing Science (Dr L. S. Jemmott), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; and Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, and Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada (Dr Fong).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED LETTERS

Maximizing the Clinical Relevance of Sexual Abstinence–Only Program Evaluations
Kristen Underhill, Paul Montgomery, and Don Operario
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2010;164(7):679.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Integrating Past Research on Related Abstinence and Safer-Sex Interventions
Heather Tevendale
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2010;164(7):679-680.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Integrating Past Research on Related Abstinence and Safer-Sex Interventions—Reply
John B. Jemmott, III, Loretta S. Jemmott, and Robin Stevens
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2010;164(7):680-681.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

RELATED ARTICLES

This Month in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2010;164(2):114.
FULL TEXT  

Research, Policy, and Adolescent Sexual Behavior
Frederick P. Rivara and Alain Joffe
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2010;164(2):200.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Maximizing the Clinical Relevance of Sexual Abstinence-Only Program Evaluations
Underhill et al.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2010;164:679-679.
FULL TEXT  

Integrating Past Research on Related Abstinence and Safer-Sex Interventions--Reply
Jemmott et al.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2010;164:680-681.
FULL TEXT  

Integrating Past Research on Related Abstinence and Safer-Sex Interventions
Tevendale
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2010;164:679-680.
FULL TEXT  

Just Say No? Abstinence-Only Intervention Might Work Best
JWatch Women's Health 2010;2010:4-4.
FULL TEXT  

Research, Policy, and Adolescent Sexual Behavior
Rivara and Joffe
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2010;164:200-200.
FULL TEXT