Authors
Meredith Kelsey, Carolyn Layzer, Jean Layzer, Cristofer Price, Randall Juras, Michelle Blocklin, and Jacqueline Mendez
Abt staff co-author this article based on a study to test whether ¡Cuídate!, a program culturally adapted for Hispanic youths, affects sexual risk behavior.
The authors evaluated 3 replications of ¡Cuídate! in California, Arizona, and Massachusetts in a randomized controlled trial (registry no. NCT02540304) in which 2169 primarily Hispanic participants were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 1326) or a control (n = 870) group. Youths were surveyed at baseline (September 2012–April 2014) and 6 months postbaseline (March 2013–October 2014). The authors estimated pooled and subgroup impacts using a regression framework with baseline covariates to increase statistical precision (1216 youths analyzed in the treatment group, 806 analyzed in the control group).
Findings suggest that ¡Cuídate! was effective in improving youths’ knowledge and attitudes. However, after 6 months, these changes did not translate to improvements in reported sexual risk behaviors.
Read the article.