Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Husr 336: Human Sexuality Undergraduate Course, Four Units, Emily Darrell, Rose Grace Grose

Open Course Materials

This brief Human Sexuality curriculum, offered as part of an undergraduate elective in the Human Services department, encompasses four units that collectively provide a comprehensive exploration of sexuality education in the U.S., the intersection of sex and disability, contraception, and variations in sexual behavior including kink and paraphilias. This curriculum provides varied, current, and accessible information about these topics using resources that students can continue to access for free after the end of the semester.

• Unit 1: Introduction to Human Sexuality & Sexual Education in the U.S. introduces students to the history of sex education in the United States, facilitating …

Planners Vs. Non-Planners: Do Preterm Births Impact Future Contraceptive Use?, Jessie Moore

NYMC Student Theses and Dissertations

Background: In the United States, 45% of all pregnancies are unintended and occur when contraception is not used or is used inconsistently. Among those pregnancies, 1 in 10 women will experience a preterm birth, which is defined as a birth occurring before 37 weeks gestation. Women who have delivered preterm are at an increased risk for preterm birth in future pregnancies and are encouraged to wait at least 18 months between giving birth and getting pregnant again. Among women who have experienced a preterm birth, the desire to delay future pregnancy or avoiding it all together often becomes a necessity …

Over-The-Counter Approval Of Progestin-Only Pills, Hannah Grace Donovan

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Most women in the United States use contraception at some point in their life. While there are many types of short- and long-acting reversible birth control options available via prescription, the oral contraceptive pill (OCP) remains the most used reversible contraceptive agent. The proportion of those using an OCP is inversely proportional with age; more specifically, people who can get pregnant between the ages of 15 and 29 use OCPs most frequently. However, people in this age range may face increased barriers to obtaining contraception, such as cost, insurance, social and familial factors, policy, transportation, and access to healthcare. In …

Improving Knowledge Of Contraceptive Options In Teenage Male Populations, Anthony Quach

Family Medicine Clerkship Student Projects

Despite a plethora of contraception available on the market, nearly 50% of pregnancies in Vermont are unintended. Currently, most educational initiatives aimed at improving contraceptive usage are targeted towards individuals with uteruses, and not their partners with penises. Both qualitative and quantitative data suggest that there are significant gaps in this latter population’s knowledge about contraception for various reasons like limited contraceptive education within formal sexual education in schools, lack of parental and/or physician discussions about contraception, and various complex social and cultural factors. This intervention aims to bridge the knowledge gap in this population by using an educational pamphlet. …

Self-Advocacy In The Exam Room: Tools And Techniques For Contraceptive Care, Angelique Bouthot

Community Engagement Student Work

Sexual and reproductive healthcare is fraught with both historic and current examples of oppression, systemic abuse, and injustice across gender, race, class, and ability. Still, high quality and responsive contraceptive care may provide numerous health benefits, the ability to prevent and plan pregnancies, and opportunities for exercising autonomy and greater educational and economic attainment. Many initiatives focus on quality improvement at the institutional or provider level, but these do not get to every institution or every provider. This project proposes an approach that reduces harm and maximizes benefit on an individual level while larger systemic changes occur. In a workshop …

Factors Influencing Contraception Use In Sexual Minority Women: A Systematic Literature Review, Grace M. Hudson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Contrary to widespread beliefs that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, plus (LGBTQ+) women do not need contraceptive care, sexual minority women (SMW) engage in vaginal-penile sexual contact which puts them at risk for unintended pregnancy. SMW assigned female gender at birth are at higher risk for less reliable and consistent contraceptive use and thus unintended pregnancy (Everett et al., 2017). This leads to the question of factors which cause SMW to be less engaged in contraceptive services. Through synthesis of studies addressing SMW and contraceptives, four themes developed: attitudes towards contraception, obstacles to care, knowledge gaps, and ways to improve …

Evaluation Of Clinician Prescribing Practices For Contraceptive Care: A Quality Improvement Collaboration, Julie Desrochers

College of Nursing and Health Sciences Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Project Publications

Purpose: Primary care providers (PCPs) have the training and opportunity to provide contraceptive care. Unplanned pregnancy is a major public health issue for which up to 50% of the population is at overall lifetime risk. Reproductive life planning during healthcare visits can reduce rates of unintended pregnancy, prompting contraception or preconception planning. Studies suggest contraceptive counseling protocols and reproductive intent screening are effective tools. This project compares clinician behaviors with best practices. The purpose is to evaluate preventive reproductive healthcare practices in primary care, identifying opportunities to meet the contraceptive healthcare needs for people of reproductive age.

Methods: PCPs and …

Examining Barriers To Sexual And Reproductive Health Services For Adolescents And Young Adults In Nebraska, Marisa Rosen

Theses & Dissertations

Despite recent declines in unintended pregnancy rates among adolescent and young adult women, barriers to family planning services and contraception continue to exist for young women living in the United States. Various initiatives have been implemented over the years from programmatic interventions to enactment of policies around family planning, yet more work needs to be done to help adolescent and young adult women successfully prevent unintended pregnancy. The Contraceptive Access Project (CAP) is a multi-component initiative in Nebraska to reduce unintended pregnancy among women aged 15-24. This dissertation comprises three separate studies each of which contributes to the overall objective …

The Logistics Of Voucher Management: The Underreported Component In Family Planning Voucher Discussions, Moazzam Ali, Madeline Farron, Syed Khurram Azmat, Waqas Hameed

Community Health Sciences

Background: The purpose of health care vouchers or coupons is to receive a health service in exchange which is fully or partially subsidized, such as any treatment offered for communicable disease; for immunization; antenatal care-/postnatal care-related maternal health services; a family planning (FP) service; or to get a health commodity like a medicine. Vouchers are targeted for a group of people who can benefit the most such as on the basis of poverty ranking, marginalized or living in rural areas. According to the World Health Organization, voucher schemes in the area of sexual and reproductive health are considered of high …

Does Courtesy Bias Affect How Clients Report On Objective And Subjective Measures Of Family Planning Service Quality? A Comparison Between Facility- And Home-Based Interviews, Waqas Hameed, Muhammad Ishaque, Xaher Gul, Junaid-Ur-Rehman Siddiqui, Sharmeen Hussain, Wajahat Hussain, Aftab Ahmed, Asma Balal

Community Health Sciences

Purpose: Despite a general understanding that exit interviews being conducted at service providers' facilities may influence clients' responses favorably to health professionals, there is very little evidence available that demonstrates the extent to which this problem exists. This study aimed at assessing and comparing clients' perceptions of the quality of family planning services and their satisfaction levels between facility- and home-based interviews.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among clients receiving family planning services across three service delivery channels - nongovernmental organization (NGO) clinics, social franchise (SF) centers, and outreach camps. The survey took place from December 2015 to January …

Implementation Of Family Planning And Contraception For Female Inmates In Vermont, Callan Janowiec Fnp

College of Nursing and Health Sciences Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Project Publications

Background and Objective(s): Unplanned pregnancies are disproportionately high among female inmates, and incarceration provides a unique opportunity for care may be otherwise difficult to obtain, including reproductive health and family planning services, specifically the provision of contraception. It is known that women are 14 times more likely to initiate contraception if education and services are provided within the prison (Clarke et al., 2006b). Despite decades of research identifying the unmet need, very few prisons around the country provide any sort of sexual health or family planning care to prisoners (Braithwaite, Treadwell, & Arriola, 2008).

Methods: This project involves the creation …

Area Specific Self-Esteem, Values, And Adolescent Sexual Behavior, Michael Young, Joseph Donnelly, George Denny

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

This study examined area-specific self-esteem scores by sexual behavior relative to adolescents' values concerning participation in sexual intercourse as an unmarried teenager. The sample consisted of 332 students in grades 7–12 from a Southern rural school district. Students were asked if they had ever had sexual intercourse (yes/no) and if they had participated in sexual intercourse in the last month (yes/no). Respondents also indicated on a 4-point scale their response to the statement “It is against my values to have sex as an unmarried teenager.” Data were analyzed using a 2 × 4 (behavior x values) analysis of variance for …

Rates Of Iucd Discontinuation And Its Associated Factors Among The Clients Of A Social Franchising Network In Pakistan, Syed Khurram Azmat, Babar Tasneem Shaikh, Waqas Hameed, Mohsina Bilgrami, Ghulam Mustafa, Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Ishaque, Wajahat Hussain, Aftab Ahmed

Community Health Sciences

Background: Modern Intrauterine contraceptive device (IUCD) is very safe, highly effective reversible and inexpensive family planning method which offers 5-10 years of protection against pregnancy. The contraceptive use in Pakistan has been merely 30% for over a decade with IUCD being the least used method. Higher discontinuation rates are documented in developing countries; however no such data is available for Pakistan. Marie Stopes Society (MSS) established a social franchise outlets network branded as 'SURAJ' (Sun) in Pakistan to provide quality family planning services. This study attempts to determine IUCD discontinuation rates and its associated risk factors. Using a semi-structured questionnaire, …

Targeting The Male In Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Terri Burgan

Theses and Dissertations

Study Objectives: To examine demographic characteristics and contraceptive habits of young men.Methods: A descriptive study was conducted utilizing data analyzed from three waves of the National Survey of the Adolescent Male (NSAM) administered in 1988, 1991, and 1995. The first wave consisted of 1,880, never-married, noninstitutionalized 15-19 year old men living in the United States. The second wave consisted of 1,676 re-interviewed respondents who were 17-22 years old. The third wave consisted of 1,377 re-interviewed respondents who were 22-27 years old. Descriptive statistics were used to compare personal and demographic characteristics across each year group. Odds ratios, and their corresponding …

Decreasing Barriers For Teens: Evaluation Of A New Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Strategy In School-Based Clinics, Abbey C. Sidebottom, Amanda Birnbaum, Sarah S. Nafstad

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Sidebottom et al seek to evaluate the effects of the change in distribution systems on students' receipt of requested contraceptives and demand for contraceptive school-based clinics (SBC). The result of the study reveals that the average number of requests per student was higher under the voucher system, possibly as a consequence of expires vouchers resulting in repeated requests. The findings also suggest that SBCs could go a step further in reducing adolescents' barriers to accessing contraceptives by adopting an on-site direct delivery system..