Social Health-Related Projects
Early Head Start Program Evaluation. Betty Chewning, PhD, Director of Evaluation under Subcontract. Awarded by the U.S. Administration for Children and Families, DHSS. $158,900. 1998 - 2003.
This is a descriptive study of the health of families in poverty with children under 3 years of age and their access to needed services, including pharmacy related care. A subset of 80 families are being followed for three years to document the influence of policy changes regarding HMO enrollment, Medicaid and welfare reform.
Rural Native Americans: A Minority Youth Intervention. Betty A. Chewning, Principal Investigator. Pat Kokotailo, MD, Co-Principal Investigator, Dale Wilson, MA, Co-Investigator. Awarded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, HHS. $1,427,826. 1992 - 1999.
This collaboration with the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council worked to reduce adolescent pregnancy, the incidence of sexually transmitted disease, including HIV, and violence. Community and school-based interventions were targeted at adolescents in the community. The intervention used video, computer and class exercises to develop increased social skills for problem-solving, accessing support and services, and reducing health risk-taking behaviors. A longitudinal design of annual student surveys was used to examine the impact of different durations of exposure to the curriculum in Grades 6 through 9. Factors significantly associated with abstention from intercourse and/or consistent use of birth control included perceived lower risk behavior of friends, higher perceived parental support, higher perceived parental knowledge and monitoring of the adolescent's activities and friends, a higher value on scholastic achievement, higher reported academic performance, and higher self-efficacy for safer sexual behaviors.
Demonstration and Evaluation of a Computerized Contraceptive Counseling Aid for Adolescents. Betty Chewning, PhD, Principal Investigator. Awarded by the Office of Family Planning, U.S. DHHS. $395,968. 1988 - 1991.
Patients' drug compliance is a critical issue in the pharmacy field. This project examined the impact of a computerized education program on subsequent oral contraception compliance of family planning clinic patients. To assist individuals in selecting and using birth control, this research developed a computerized counseling aid, using input from national and local advisory committees.
As part of a three-year federal study, impact of the computerized contraceptive decision aid was evaluated in terms of the patient knowledge, confidence, use and discontinuance of oral contraceptives. The target audience for this research consisted of women under age 20 who were making an initial visit to a Title X family planning clinic. A longitudinal study was conducted with 950 clients in inner-city Chicago and Madison.
When clients were interviewed following their use of the computer program, none of the Madison, and only 2% of the Chicago clients reported they did not like using the computer. Sixty-seven percent of the Madison and 63% of the Chicago clients reported the program made them feel better about the method they chose. Immediately after the visit, and again one year later, there were significant gains in knowledge and confidence about oral contraceptives for the experimental group who had seen the computer program versus the control group who had not.