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.