NCT02897804

Engineering an Online STI Prevention Program

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 3,997 (actual)
• Sponsor: Penn State University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 30 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The overall objective of the proposed research is to reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among college students. The investigators propose to accomplish this by using the innovative, engineering-inspired multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) to develop a highly effective, appealing, economical, and readily scalable internet-delivered behavioral intervention targeting the intersection of alcohol use and sexual risk behavior. The rate of STIs on college campuses is alarming: one in four college students is diagnosed with an STI at least once during their college experience. Sexual activity when drinking alcohol is highly prevalent among college students. Alcohol use is known to contribute to the sexual risk behaviors that are most responsible for the transmission of STIs, namely unprotected sex, contact with numerous partners, and "hook-ups" (casual sexual encounters). Few interventions have been developed that explicitly target the intersection of alcohol use and sexual risk behaviors, and none have been optimized. In order to reduce the incidence of STI transmission among this and other high-risk groups, a new approach is needed. MOST is a comprehensive methodological framework that brings the power of engineering principles to bear on optimization of behavioral interventions. MOST enables researchers to experimentally test the individual components in an intervention to determine their effectiveness, indicating which components need to be revised and re-tested. Given the high rates of alcohol use and sex among college students, the college setting provides an ideal opportunity for intervening on alcohol use and sexual risk behaviors. The proposed study will include a diverse population of college students on 4 campuses which will increase the generalizability of the findings. The specific aims are to (1) develop and pilot test an initial set of online intervention components targeting the link between alcohol use and sexual risk behaviors, (2) use the MOST approach to build an optimized preventive intervention, and (3) evaluate the effectiveness of the newly optimized preventive intervention using a fully powered randomized controlled trial (RCT). This work will result in a new, more potent behavioral intervention that will reduce the incidence of STIs among college students in the US, and will lay the groundwork for a new generation of highly effective STI prevention interventions aimed at other subpopulations at risk.

Detailed description

As part of the MOST approach, the investigators will conduct a series of screening experiments to build an optimized intervention. The current study is the first (of two) screening experiments.

Conditions

• Sexual Behavior
• Alcohol Consumption
• Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Knowledge alone	Increase knowledge related STIs, STI risk, alcohol impairment, condom use skills, alcohol use behavior tracking skills, testing \& treatment services.
BEHAVIORAL	Self-efficacy alone	Increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Perceived benefits alone	Increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol.
BEHAVIORAL	Perceived benefits and self-efficacy	Increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Injunctive norms	Correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking.
BEHAVIORAL	Injunctive norms and self-efficacy	Correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Injunctive norms and perceived benefits	Correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking and increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Injunctive norms, perceived benefits, and self-efficacy	Correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking; increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex; and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Descriptive norms alone	Correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors.
BEHAVIORAL	Descriptive norms and self-efficacy	Correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Descriptive norms and perceived benefits	Correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors and increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol.
BEHAVIORAL	Descriptive norms,perceived benefits,self-efficacy	Correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors; increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol; and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Descriptive and injunctive norms	Correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors and correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking.
BEHAVIORAL	Descriptive norms, injunctive norms,self-efficacy	Correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors; correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking; and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Descriptive and injunctive norms, benefits	Correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors; correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking; and increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol.
BEHAVIORAL	Descriptive and injunctive norms, benefits,efficacy	Correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors; correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking; increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol; and Increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies alone	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies and self-efficacy	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies and Perceived Benefits	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter and increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies, perceived benefits, self-efficacy	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter; increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol; and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies and injunctive norms	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter and correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies, injunctive norms, and self-efficacy	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter; correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking; and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies, injunctive norms, benefits	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter; correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking; and increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies, injunctive norms, benefits, efficacy	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter; correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking; increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol; and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies and descriptive norms	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter and correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies, descriptive norms, and self-efficacy	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter; correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors; and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies, descriptive norms, and benefits	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter; correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors; and increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies,descriptive norms, benefits, efficacy	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter; correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors; increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol; and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies, descriptive and injunctive norms	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter; correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors; and correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies, descr& injun norms, efficacy	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter; correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors; correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking; and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies, desc & injun norms, benefits	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter; correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors; correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking; and increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol.
BEHAVIORAL	Expectancies,desc & injun norms,benefits,efficacy	Decrease the expectation that alcohol is needed to have good sexual encounter; correct misperceptions of prevalence of alcohol-induced sexual risk behaviors, alcohol use/misuse, and sexual risk behaviors; correct misperceptions regarding approval of alcohol misuse \& sexual risk taking; increase perceived benefits to use protective behavioral strategies to reduce the negative consequences of engaging in sexual behaviors under the influence of alcohol; and increase self-efficacy to use protective behavioral strategies (e.g., condom negotiation skills) to reduce unprotected sex.

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-08-01
• Primary completion: 2016-11-01
• Completion: 2017-06-01
• First posted: 2016-09-13
• Last updated: 2019-01-09

Locations

4 sites across 1 country: United States