@article{discovery10096342,
         journal = {Pilot and Feasibility Studies},
           month = {May},
            year = {2018},
           title = {Study protocol for the optimisation, feasibility testing and pilot cluster randomised trial of Positive Choices: A school-based social marketing intervention to promote sexual health, prevent unintended teenage pregnancies and address health inequalities in England},
            note = {This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.},
          volume = {4},
        abstract = {Background: Since the introduction of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy (TPS), England's under-18 conception rate
has fallen by 55\%, but a continued focus on prevention is needed to maintain and accelerate progress. The teenage
birth rate remains higher in the UK than comparable Western European countries. Previous trials indicate that schoolbased social marketing interventions are a promising approach to addressing teenage pregnancy and improving
sexual health. Such interventions are yet to be trialled in the UK. This study aims to optimise and establish the feasibility
and acceptability of one such intervention: Positive Choices.
Methods: Design: Optimisation, feasibility testing and pilot cluster randomised trial.
Interventions: The Positive Choices intervention comprises a student needs survey, a student/staff led School
Health Promotion Council (SHPC), a classroom curriculum for year nine students covering social and emotional
skills and sex education, student-led social marketing activities, parent information and a review of school sexual
health services.
Systematic optimisation of Positive Choices will be carried out with the National Children's Bureau Sex Education
Forum (NCB SEF), one state secondary school in England and other youth and policy stakeholders.
Feasibility testing will involve the same state secondary school and will assess progression criteria to advance to
the pilot cluster RCT.
Pilot cluster RCT with integral process evaluation will involve six different state secondary schools (four
interventions and two controls) and will assess the feasibility and utility of progressing to a full effectiveness trial.
The following outcome measures will be trialled as part of the pilot:
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1. Self-reported pregnancy and unintended pregnancy (initiation of pregnancy for boys) and sexually
transmitted infections,
2. Age of sexual debut, number of sexual partners, use of contraception at first and last sex and non-volitional
sex
3. Educational attainment
The feasibility of linking administrative data on births and termination to self-report survey data to measure our
primary outcome (unintended teenage pregnancy) will also be tested.
Discussion: This will be the first UK-based pilot trial of a school-wide social marketing intervention to reduce
unintended teenage pregnancy and improve sexual health. If this study indicates feasibility and acceptability of
the optimised Positive Choices intervention in English secondary schools, plans will be initiated for a phase III trial
and economic evaluation of the intervention.
Trial registration: ISRCTN registry (ISCTN12524938. Registered 03/07/2017).},
          author = {Ponsford, R and Allen, E and Campbell, R and Elbourne, D and Hadley, A and Lohan, M and Melendez-Torres, GJ and Mercer, CH and Morris, S and Young, H and Bonell, C},
             url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-018-0279-3},
        keywords = {Teenage pregnancy, Sexual health, SRE, RSE, School intervention, Adolescent, Cluster randomised trial}
}