CHoiCE: Preferences of high school students for HIV and contraceptive services

The South African government has taken strong steps to offer school-based health programs to address the needs of adolescents for HIV prevention and reproductive health services. Evidence shows that school health programs can support young people in adopting lifelong behaviours and attitudes that reduce their risk of HIV, other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and pregnancy. For any school-based program to be successful, however, students have to use it. Thus the program must be tailored to meet the needs of the population it intends to serve.

The aim of this study is to contribute to improved access to HIV and sexual and reproductive health care by adolescents and young people in South Africa through a multi-step evaluation of the preferences of high school students and individuals responsible for school-based health care

The specific objectives of the study are to:

1. Identify the characteristics of HIV prevention and contraceptive service delivery that are important to school-going youth when making decisions regarding whether to and how to access care.
2. Explore the opinions and preferences of stakeholders (including teachers, parents, government officials, etc.) with regard to the acceptability and feasibility of various models for offering HIV and contraceptive services to school-going youth.
3. Design and conduct a discrete choice experiment to quantify school-going youths’ preferences for attributes of various feasible models of HIV and contraceptive service delivery.
4. Based on objectives 1-3, provide recommendations to policymakers in South Africa regarding HIV and contraceptive services for school-going youth.