Abstract:
We conducted a quasi-experiment to investigate whether a
peer education intervention could result in positive sexual
behavioral change outcomes in selected schools in Northern
Malawi. The experimental participants (n ¼ 158) were exposed
to an HIV risk reduction intervention. The control participants
(n ¼ 147) were exposed to a Health Promotion Package. At
8 months, there were significant improvements in the inter vention arm on several outcomes. The experimental group
was 96% less likely to have sex than the control (OR¼ 0.04,
CI¼ 0.01–0.20). Intervention participants were also 3.49 times
likely to report condom use when they had sex (OR¼ 3.49,
95% CI¼ 0.96 to 12.65) and had lower odds of having mul tiple sexual partners. There were no significant differences on
abstinence and the desire to have medical male circumcision
(MMC). We suggest the intervention has potential efficacy to
improve HIV risk reduction among adolescents in Malawi and
perhaps in other similar settings.
