Dual Protection Use to Prevent STIs and Unintended Pregnancy
1Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Rollins School of Public Health, GA, USA
2Department of Infectious Diseases, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
3Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA
4Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, USA
5Division of Reproductive Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA
Dual Protection Use to Prevent STIs and Unintended Pregnancy
Description
Young women are at the greatest risk for unintended pregnancy and contracting a variety of STIs. Medical practitioners, researchers, and professional organizations have recommended reproductive health counseling which includes dual protection strategies designed to enhance prevention of both unintended pregnancy and STI/HIV. Although recommended, dual protection is not commonly practiced, especially in USA. Few studies have investigated correlates of dual protection use, and among those published, the majority employ a decision theory framework. This framework has strengths for understanding personal decision making, but recent findings support the use of a broader contextual perspective because young women make individual behavior choices within a complex web of social systems and structures, and each system (individual-, interpersonal-, community-, and society-level systems) has been shown to influence STI/HIV preventive and contraceptive behaviors in women. Thus, a gap in the empirical database regarding dual protection use remains.
The focus of this call for papers is to solicit findings about dual protection use among a variety of women. Papers that characterize dual protection users along a broad array of contextual influences would be of great interest. Further, we are particularly interested in manuscripts that report on barriers and facilitators to dual protection use and that present findings on effective strategies to improve the rates of dual protection use among adolescents and young women. Review and innovative research papers that employ a broader contextual perspective on dual protection use are also welcome. Main topics include, but are not limited to:
- Multilevel correlates of dual protection use among adolescents/young women
- Interventions that promote dual protection use
- Male partner perspective on dual protection use
- Barriers and facilitators to practicing dual protection use
- Provider's perspective on dual protection use and counseling
- Innovative strategies for and approaches to increase dual protection
- Comparative efficacy of different dual protection strategies (i.e., consistent condom use, condom use with hormonal contraception, LARC usage with condom or monogamy, couple STI testing with hormonal contraceptive, etc.) on STI acquisition and pregnancy
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