Paper
Saturday, 22 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Public Health Initiatives
Taking Action to Reduce Chlamydia: Generating Local Knowledge to Guide our Practice
Josephine Pui-Hing Wong, RN, MScN1, Renee Boi-Doku, PHN, BScN2, Karen B.K. Chan, BA2, and Simone McWatt, BA2. (1) Planning & Policy Section, Toronto Public Health, Toronto, ON, Canada, (2) Sexual Health - Healthy Living, Toronto Public Health, Scarborough, ON, Canada
Learning Objective #1: develop increased understanding on the social context of chlamydia infection among inner city young women.
Learning Objective #2: acquire practical skills to formulate research designs that are purposeful in guiding health promotion activities or nursing practices.
Chlamydia is the most prevalent sexually transmitted infection (STI) in Canada.  It disproportionately affects young women.  Whereas the 2002 overall rates of chlamydia in Canada were 179.3/100,000, the chlamydia rates for females aged 15-24 were 1421.8/100,000.  It is estimated that 80% of women and 50% of men infected with chlamydia are asymptomatic; when left untreated, many develop pelvic inflammatory diseases, infertility and other complications. 
In 2004, Toronto Public Health (TPH) established the use of health communication campaigns as one of the key strategies to reduce chlamydia rates among women aged 15-24.  Mapping of local epidemiological data identified 20 ‘priority’ neighbourhoods where the prevalence of chlamydia was disproportionately higher than other neighbourhoods.  As evidence suggests that effective health promotion campaigns must be relevant to the ‘target’ populations, TPH undertook a study to generate local knowledge on the experiences of young women in these priority neighbourhoods in using sexual health care, their perceptions of chlamydia testing and their opinions of an effective health communication campaign.  
A total of 49 sexually active young women aged 16-19 and 20-24 were recruited to participate in 5 focus groups.  A pre-discussion survey was used to allow anonymous responses to questions of a sensitive nature.  Findings of the study show that most participants had multiple misconceptions about chlamydia and testing; many participants also reported a lack of relevant sex education at school, at home or in the community.  They identified access to non-judgmental, confidential and comprehensive ‘one-stop’ sexual health services as the key to encourage chlamydia testing among young women.  In terms of health communication campaigns, opinions of the participants reflected tension and contradictions that illustrate the day-to-day challenges that young women are faced with in embracing their sexuality.

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