Preventing Substance Use and HIV/STI Among Urban Youth Via an M-Health Primary Care Preventive Intervention
Preventing Substance Use and HIV/STI Among Urban Youth Via an M-Health Primary Care Preventive Intervention
The study aims to develop tobacco modules to be included in an innovative mobile-health (mHealth) intervention (hereon referred to as S4E) and to determine the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the updated version of S4E in an urban youth-centered community health clinic in Southeast Michigan.
Tobacco use remains a significant public health concern in the US, and youth are disproportionately affected. Among high school youth , 38% report lifetime cigarette use, and 9.3% report having smoked a whole cigarette before the age of 13. In Southeast Michigan, African-American youth are at disproportionate risk of engaging in tobacco use and co-occuring substance use and other risk behaviors. To address these significant public health concerns, we developed Storytelling 4 Empowerment (S4E), a targeted and tailored mobile-health (mHealth) application (app) intervention to be delivered in health clinic settings. The proposed research aims to develop culturally congruent and developmentally appropriate modules focused on tobacco use prevention and risk reduction to be included as part of the S4E mHealth app. The proposed research will also determine the preliminary efficacy of S4E in reducing tobacco use, alcohol and other drug use, sexual risk behaviors, and improving HIV/STI testing in a sample (n=50) of youth ages 13-21 living in Southeast Michigan.
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Exclusion Criteria: