Brief Intervention for Teen Pregnancy Prevention

Although the Academy of Pediatrics and the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine
recommend that teen health providers screen for sexual risk behaviors and provide education
and counseling to those at risk, there are currently no specific guidelines or protocols
available to guide such practices, nor have there been any rigorous evaluations of efficacy.
Preventing teen pregnancy through brief intervention in primary care holds the promise to
have a significant public health impact and reduce health disparities by engaging, educating,
and motivating the majority of teens who visit a primary care setting each year. In the
current study, we seek to rigorously evaluate the impact of brief intervention vs.
informational control on unprotected sexual intercourse among teens with past year
unprotected sex at two primary care clinics serving predominately underserved, minority
populations in New Mexico. The target population for the current study will be 1350 male and
female teens, aged 13-19, from the Atrisco Center for Family and Community Health and the
Albuquerque Job Corps Wellness Center. Extensive formative work involving the study
population will be conducted prior to the trial to refine the motivational interviewing-based
brief intervention. Eligible youth will be randomly assigned to brief intervention or an
informational control condition, in addition to regularly offered medically-based
contraception consultation and prescription services. Follow-ups at 3- and 9- months will
compare rates of unprotected sex and acceptance of long-acting reversible contraceptives.
Brief education and counseling interventions could be feasibly implemented during the greater
than eight preventive and acute primary care visits that the average US adolescent attends
during their teen years. Such an approach could conserve valuable resources required by more
intensive interventions for nonresponsive teens with greater need. Furthermore, social
determinants of health, such as poverty and race, that may reduce access to more extensive
psychosocial interventions, are less likely to prevent access to primary care, increasing
health equity.