Rachel Mash

A quasi-experimental evaluation of an HIV prevention programme by peer education in the Anglican Church of the Western Cape, South Africa

Introduction Religion is important in most African communities, but faith-based HIV prevention programmes are infrequent and very rarely evaluated. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a church-based peer education HIV prevention programme that focused on youth. Design A quasi-experimental study design compared non-randomly chosen intervention and control groups. Setting This study was conducted in the Cape Town Diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Participants The intervention group of 176 teenagers was selected from youth groups at 14 churches and the control group of 92 from youth groups at 17 churches. Intervention and control churches were chosen to be as similar as possible to decrease confounding. Intervention The intervention was a 20-session peer education programme (Fikelela: Agents of Change) aimed at changing risky sexual behaviour among youth (aged 12–19 years). Three workshops were also held with parents. Primary and secondary outcome measures The main outcome measures were changes in age of sexual debut, secondary abstinence, condom use and numbers of partners. Results The programme was successful at increasing condom usage (condom use score 3.5 vs 2.1; p=0.02), OR 6.7 (95% CI 1.1 to 40.7), and postponing sexual debut (11.9% vs 21.4%; p=0.04) absolute difference 9.5%. There was no difference in secondary abstinence (14.6% vs 12.5%; p=0.25) or with the number of partners (mean 1.7 vs 1.4; p=0.67) and OR 2.2 (95% CI 0.7 to 7.4). Conclusion An initial exploratory quasi-experimental evaluation of the Agents of Change peer education programme in a church-based context found that the age of sexual debut and condom usage was significantly increased. The study demonstrated the potential of faith-based peer education among youth to make a contribution to HIV prevention in Africa. Further evaluation of the effectiveness of the programme is, however, required before widespread implementation can be recommended.

Survey of sexual behaviour among Anglican youth in the Western Cape.

Extracted from text ... February 2006, Vol. 96, No. 2 SAMJ 124 Survey of sexual behaviour among Anglican youth in the Western Cape Rachel Mash, Roselyn Kareithi, Bob Mash To the Editor: The sexual behaviour of young people in South Africa is clearly important with regard to their risk of acquiring HIV / AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). As many young people are exposed to the teaching of the church on this issue, church organisations, which reach into almost every community, can make a significant contribution towards the reduction of risky sexual behaviour. This study explored the sexual behaviour of youth ..