Revela2: Evaluation of the in-School Component of an Edutainment Intervention to Promote Sexual and Reproductive Health Among Youth in Colombia

Introduction: “Revela2” is a multimedia, TV, and social mobilization edutainment program for Colombian adolescents and youth. Revela2 addresses diverse topics associated with sexual and reproductive health (SRH), including: a) decision making, with a focus on teen pregnancy prevention, b) respect for sexual diversity, c) sexual violence and d) promotion of HIV testing. In addition to the social media component, “Revela2” also includes an educational package designed to support educational processes about sexuality both in and out of the classroom. This study presents a short-term evaluation of the in-school implementation of Revela2 in two schools, using a cross-sectional case-control study design.  The intervention consisted of four two-hour workshops facilitated by trained personnel from the Revela2 program and 1 or 2 teachers from the school. The evaluation occurred about two weeks after the last session.

Methods: Data come from a broader study of SRH among rural youth in Colombia, in which a total of 2746 youth (50% females; 45% out-of-school; ages 14-24; Mean age = 17.6) individually completed a survey covering several topics associated with SRH. Of the 350 students exposed to the intervention, 70 (cases) were randomly selected to complete the survey (56% female; mean age = 15.4). These students were paired in terms of age, sex and previous sexual experience, with 70 survey participants (controls) randomly selected from different schools in the same town but who were not exposed to the intervention. An external firm -blinded to which schools had participated in the intervention- was in charge of data collection. The present analyses focus on case-control comparisons regarding condom use and HIV testing intentions, HIV knowledge, and attitudes towards condom use, HIV testing, voluntary interruption of pregnancy, homosexuality and sexual violence.

Results: In general, students who participated in the intervention evaluated it positively (M = 4.59 on a 1 to 5 scale). Covered topics more frequently recalled were: sexual decision making, condom use, HIV/STIs and abortion. Compared to the control group, students who participated in the intervention had significantly higher intentions to use condoms (t ₍₆₀₎ = 3.52; p = .001) and to get an HIV test (t ₍₆₀₎ = 2.07; p = .042), higher HIV related knowledge (t ₍₆₉₎ = 5.32; p < .0001) and more positive attitudes towards condom use (t ₍₆₉₎ = 2.86; p = .006), HIV testing (t ₍₆₉₎ = 3.07; p = .003) and voluntary interruption of pregnancy (t ₍₅₀₎= 3.18; p = .003). Attitudes towards homosexuality and sexual violence did not differ significantly between groups.

Conclusions: Some limitations of the study, particularly the lack of a pre-test, exclusion of out-of-school youth and the impossibility to control for sex and sexual experience due to the small sample size, warrant caution in the interpretation and generalization of these findings. Despite these limitations, the evaluation supports the positive impact of “Revela2” on students’ knowledge, intentions and attitudes towards most of the topics covered by the program, at least in the short-term. More long-term evaluations of the program are needed to understand the stability of its impact.