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Connect

An Evidence-Based Practice

Description

Connect is an intervention program to increase safer sex among minority, inner-city heterosexual couples. The intervention is delivered to the couple or to the woman alone. Couples attend relationship-based sessions together following separate one-on-one orientation sessions. The intervention sessions educate couples about the importance of relationship communication, safer sex negotiation, and problem solving. The program uses counseling, discussions, exercises, demonstrations, and practice to build skills for safer sex within relationships. Participants learn how gender roles influence relationship dynamics, and how to maintain safer sex behavior. Women who attend sessions alone receive the same content as couples.

Goal / Mission

The goal of Connect is to increase relationship communication and safer sex practices among couples.

Results / Accomplishments

The couples and women-alone interventions both significantly increased the proportion of protected vaginal sex acts when compared with a single educational session control group (both p’s < 0.05). The women-alone session significantly reduced the number of unprotected vaginal sex acts when compared to the educational control (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences between couples who attended the intervention together and women who went alone.

About this Promising Practice

Organization(s)
Columbia University School of Social Work Social Intervention Group
Primary Contact
Dr. Nabila El-Bassel
Social Intervention Group
Columbia University School of Social Work
622 West 113th Street, Box 713
New York, NY 10025
(212) 851-2391
ne5@columbia.edu
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ssw/sig/
Topics
Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases
Organization(s)
Columbia University School of Social Work Social Intervention Group
Source
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Date of publication
2003
Date of implementation
1997
Geographic Type
Urban
Location
New York, NY
For more details
https://effectiveinterventions.cdc.gov/en/HighImpa...
Target Audience
Adults

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Related Content for: Connect

An Evidence-Based Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures showing improvement in the outcome(s) of interest after the implementation of the program (i.e. increase in smoking cessation, not just the delivery of a smoking cessation program). The outcome measure(s) is/are compared at relevant time periods before and after the intervention or program implementation. Alternatively, the evaluation study compares the outcome(s) between an intervention group and an appropriate control group.
  3. The study is of peer-review quality and presents numbers in a scientific manner; measurements of precision and reliability are included (e.g. confidence intervals, standard errors), results from statistical tests show a significant difference or change in the outcome measure(s), and relevant point estimates and p-values are presented. Note: if the results from an evaluation of a program are presented in a scientific manner and the outcome measure is improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant, the practice is classified as effective and not evidence-based.
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