UCSF College Health Study on Contraceptive Training and Education at Community Colleges

In the US, young women aged 18-25 years have limited knowledge of contraception or pregnancy risks and often experience challenges in accessing reproductive health care. They have little familiarity with the full range of contraceptives, particularly long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) including the IUD and implant. This campus-level, multiple component intervention provides evidence-based contraceptive training and education to clinic staff and students in this age group attending community colleges in California and Texas.

Inclusion criteria

This study involves two groups of human subjects: students at 28 community colleges and staff at the student health center and referral clinics.

Students must be:

• Female;
• Age 18-25;
• Speaks English;
• Sexually active (vaginal sex with a male partner) in the last year;
• Not currently pregnant;
• Does not want to become pregnant in the next 12 months;
• At risk of pregnancy (including not sterilized);
• Enrolled in the current term at the participating community college;
• First-time college students, meaning no college enrollment prior to the current academic year; and
• Willing to be contacted by email and telephone over the next 12 months.

Clinic staff must:

• Be employed by a participating clinic; and
• Offer clinical care, counseling or education for contraception at the clinic.

For colleges to be eligible to be study sites, they must:

• Be an accredited community college;
• Not share health center staff with a participating college site;
• Have no active LARC intervention; and
• Enroll students ages 18-25 years.

Exclusion criteria

• Students and clinic staff will be excluded if they do not meet the inclusion criteria.