Assignment 2: Course Project—Plan to Address Health Issue

APPLICATIONS OF THE PRECEDE-PROCEED MODEL 6

Applications of the PRECEDE-PROCEED Model

PHE 6210 Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

Phyllis Ocran

Dr. Gayle Jones

April 18, 2017

Unprotected intercourse among teens

In the world, when there are many infections due to unprotected intercourse, it is vital to understand the consequence of unprotected intercourse amongst the teens. Unprotected sex amongst teens is bad news since it leads to increased dangerous and deadly infections like STIs and most important HIV (Southern Nevada Health District, 2012). These are permanent and lifelong consequences that affect all teens. Furthermore, unprotected sex amongst teen can lead to a teen pregnancy that is mostly unwanted (Southern Nevada Health District, 2012). It is a problem and it huge socio-economic implications as well as daunting stigmas especially when a teen contract STIs and HIV as well as unwanted/teen pregnancies.

Reasons Unprotected Intercourse amongst teens is problematic

There are three vital reasons why unprotected intercourse among the teens is problematic (Southern Nevada Health District, 2012). According to recent statistics, teen pregnancy is at its all-time high as the prevalence is 24% per 1,000 women. Teen pregnancy is the first reason unprotected intercourse is problematic. Teen pregnancy often lead to school drop-outs that increase the illiteracy levels and it’s costly on the nation. The second reason unprotected intercourse amongst teens is a problem is STIs and HIV/AIDS (Braly, Amuta, & McNeill, 2013). It is vital to understand that some of the STIs have lifelong consequences since they have no cure, examples of such are gonorrhea, herpes, hepatitis A&B, and HIV/AIDS. (Braly, Amuta, & McNeill, 2013). Furthermore, it also has a socio-economic implication such as stigmatization. Any teen that is diagnosed with HIV/AIDS is often stigmatized because they have a deadly infection.

All in all, unprotected intercourse amongst the teens is expensive not only to the government agencies but also to the parents and teens (Braly, Amuta, & McNeill, 2013). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that $15.9 billion is used to disease new cases of STDs annually. Furthermore, around $9 billion is used annually in teen pregnancy increasing the burden on taxpayers (Braly, Amuta, & McNeill, 2013). Even, after the birth of the child, the child must be given proper care that cost money from the parents and the child. The teen is often forced to drop out of school in search of income to fund for the child.

PRE Factors for Unprotected Sex amongst teens

It is significant to understand there are factors that empirically support youths to have unprotected sex. The first Predisposing factors are that adolescents take risks and are curious. (Hayden, 2013). The physical and emotional changes in the teens give them an urge to want to have sex. The second factors is that fact that teens are aware of the increase in their gentiles. Furthermore, this factor is facilitated by education that teaches them about sex. The Reinforcing factors include their willingness of the girls and boys to experiment as well as having their privacy (Hayden, 2013). The urge to have sex is common amongst the boys and girls and therefore, majority of them take the risk to have unprotected sex. The Enabling factors is that most of the teens did not know how to use contraceptives because people believe using it means one is promiscious, and also, majority of teens are forced into abstinence. Therefore, they cannot ask how to use contraceptives and hence, they would engage in unprotected sex. Additionally, legally they are not allowed to have sex and therefore, they hide when having sex without protection.

Possible Intervention based on PRE factors

The first Predisposing factors are their changing emotionally traits and their urge to take risks and experiments (Hayden, 2013). The possible intervention would be educative tutorial through songs and in a casual environment. The educative tutorials would focus on the dangers of unprotected sex. It would be significant to have a role model that would be a leading example of prevention of unprotected sex (Braly, Amuta, & McNeill, 2013). The second intervention based on Enabling factors would be to have a proper supportive system that discourages unprotected sex from the family (Hayden, 2013). In this case, the supportive systems would be customized to avoid a rebellion from the teens. Finally, provision of contraceptive and contraceptive education to the teens. It would entail giving them appropriate knowledge on how to use contraceptive and avoid unprotected sex.

References

Braly, V., Amuta, A., & McNeill, E. B. (2013). A Section of the PRECEDE–PROCEED Model and Its Application in Fictional Podunk, Texas: A Strategy for Preparing Future Health Education Specialists to Use Planning Models. Journal of Health Education Teaching Techniques, 2 (2);1–15.

Hayden, J. A. (2013). Introduction to Health Behavior Theory. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Southern Nevada Health District. (2012). Teens face ‘real life’ consequences of unprotected sex. Retrieved from Southern Nevada Health District: https://www.southernnevadahealthdistrict.org/newsletter/enews/1103-teens.html