Hormonal Contraceptive Health Education for Adolescent Males in the Pediatric Emergency Department

Unintended pregnancy among adolescents is a significant public health issue and U.S. adolescents have one of the highest unintended pregnancy rates among industrialized nations. An estimated 9% of male adolescents becoming fathers by the time they are 20 years old. Over 14 million adolescents use emergency departments every year and many of the adolescent males that present to the ED are engaged in high risk sexual behaviors which puts them at high risk for unintended pregnancy. This presents an opportunity to educate males that are at high risk about pregnancy prevention.

This study is a prospective randomized control trial of education about female hormonal contraception for these higher risk adolescent males, 15-21 years old, that present to the Saint Louis Children's Hospital pediatric emergency department. An electronic application will be used to take a sexual history and ask questions about patients' current attitudes and use of hormonal contraception with their partners. They will then be randomized to watch a video on female hormonal contraception (experimental group) or no video (control group). The video will be an overview with brief pros and cons of all available types of hormonal contraception. The app emphasizes importance of condom use as part of dual method protection throughout. All patients will be followed up in 3 months to complete a survey with similar questions on sexual history, discussions with partners, and current contraceptive practices. The hypothesis of the study is that this will lead to increased rates of discussion about hormonal contraception between male adolescents and their sexual partners. This may lead to increased contraceptive use rates and a decrease in unintended pregnancy.