Protects Against STIs Public Health Campaign

Protectects Against STIs Public Health Campaign1
PROTECTECTS AGAINST STIs PUBLIC HEALTH CAMPAIGN
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Protectects Against STIs Public Health Campaign2
a) Introduction and Overview
Identification for the campaign to be analysed
Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) are arguably the major health
problem affecting the youth, not only in third world states but also in developed
countries, the UK included (Anker et al. 2016). These diseases include HIV/AIDS,
gonorrhoea, hepatitis, chlamydia, and herpes, just to mention but a few. To create
awareness among the most vulnerable group, the Public Health England (PHE)
came up with a sexual health campaign dubbed ‘Protects against STIs.’ The
campaign was a Government health initiative to encourage sexually active in Britain
to adopt regular use of condom during intercourse The campaign targeted
individuals at the age of 16 to 24-year-old. 'Protect against STIs' intended to
enlighten the public on the effects of STIs and how they can be avoided using
condoms.
Rationale
The World Health Organization ([WHO] 2016) reports that most teenagers
between the ages of 16-24 are the most vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections.
Research further shows that this group of individuals care less about getting infected
with STIs as they rarely get tested to know their health (Wolffenbuttel et al. 2017).
For instance, Davis and Duke (2018) found that 43 percent of all new STIs infections
affected young adults aged between 13 and 19 years. Hansson, Stjernswärd, and
Svensson, (2016) conclude that the risk of acquiring chronic diseases like HIV/AIDS
increases with the increasing number of STIs. According to Andrasik et al. (2015),
there are currently eight known different types of STIs. Such a huge number of
diseases against a huge population of sexually active young adults poses a health
risk to the incoming generations, thus the need for awareness campaigns like the
“Protects against STI” initiative. The author thus picked on this campaign bearing in
mind the criticality of the matter is sought to address.
Aims and Objectives of the campaign
The purpose of the campaign was to encourage and regularise the use of
condoms among young adults and in the long run, reduce the spread of sexually
transmitted diseases among the target group. To achieve this intervention goal, the
campaign’s key message was centered on raising awareness to the youths on the
need to regularly use condoms for protection against STIs.
Relationship Between the Campaign and a Recent Health Policy

Protectects Against STIs Public Health Campaign3
In 2013, the UK government came up with the National Framework for
Sexual Health Improvement (NFSHI) policy; a document that set out the evidence-
base for sexual wellbeing and, HIV eradication. The policy was developed to provide
data, evidence base and bolster mechanisms to empower everyone involved in the
sexual health sector to work cooperatively and to guarantee that available
interventions and services are made accessible and known. It is against this
background that the campaign was developed to make sexual health services and
products such as condom familiarised to the general public, especially the most
susceptible to STIs infection.
How does this campaign relate to recent relevant research?
Studies show that four out of ten adolescents in Britain engage in unprotected
sex, making themselves exposed to infection by various STIs, some of which have
been mention herein (Wolffenbuttel et al. 2017). In addition, studies attest that one-
third of British youths do not know the significance of engaging in protected sex.
While three-quarters of the sexually active population know about condoms, 50
percent of this group ignore to use it on the disguise of maximizing sexual sensation
during sex. This perception, if not addressed could prove disastrous to the young
generation. Moreover, the campaign was developed in response to the recent
researches and statistics that indicate a worrying trend in sexual health education
and awareness. According to Vrinten, Wardle, and Marlow (2016), only a paltry 11
percent of teenagers get information about STIs from their guardians, leaving an
unanswered question as to where the remaining 89 percent get their information
from. Also, close to two-thirds of men aged between 18 and 60 years were
completely oblivious of the dangers of unprotected sex and knew very little about
condom and how it can be used for protection against STI, pointing towards a poor
public awareness and knowledge of STIs. This naivety called for a sexual health
awareness campaign (Wilkinson et al. 2016).
b) Implementation of the Campaign
As already indicated, the ‘Protect against STIs’ was a public health
awareness campaign conceptualized and implemented by the Public Health England
targeting youths aged between 16-24 years old. This was the group considered to be
the most vulnerable to infection by STD’s that could easily be prevented by the use
of condoms. The campaign lasted for two years between 2016 and 2017 and was
funded by the NHS to a tune of £374 Million. The costs included-administration,

Protectects Against STIs Public Health Campaign4
health clinics, posters, leaflets, transport, television promotion costs among other
expenditures.
Theoretical underpinnings of the campaign
The ‘Protects against STIs’ campaign draws its tactical strategy from three
conceptual models namely the transtheoretical model, the theory of reason action
and the health belief model. The transtheoretical model is a dynamic hypothesis of
progress that relies on the supposition that there is a typical arrangement of progress
plans that can be connected over a wide scope of health attitudes. The model
conceptualizes behavior change as a procedure composed of a progression of six
discrete stages namely; pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, execution,
support, and termination. According to this theory, people utilize cognitive, affective
and assessment procedures during the initial stages of change; amid the later
stages, they advance to commitment, conditioning, possibilities, natural controls, and
finaly progress toward retention of the acquired behaviour (Shan et al. 2015). Sethi,
Rawnsley, and Jose (2016) observe that each stage of transformation brings a
person nearer to making or sustaining behavioral adjustments such as regular use of
condoms.
The theory of reason action is an advancement of information integration
theory (Richardson et al. 2016). According to this concept, there are two
fundamental changes in human action first, reasoned attitudes and secondly the
persuasion process which integrates attitudes in the behaviors. The theory overtly
confines itself to behaviors while remaining cognizant of the fact that there exist
some situations that deter the influence of attitude on one's conduct or even change
of the same. For instance, if an individual’s attitude wants him to have sex but he
has no protection, his lack of condom will prevent his attitude from causing him to
engage in raw sex. Thus reasoned action forecasts behavioral motive which is a
trade-off between stopping an attitude prediction and predicting an action.
Lastly, the ‘Protects from STIs’ initiative relied on the health belief model
(HBM) as part of its tactical approach strategy. The health belief model is a
psychological model that attempts to predict and explain health behaviors among
different categories of people. The prediction is done based on an individual set of
beliefs and attitudes (Morley et al. 2016). The theory is a common health behaviors
tool used to explore both long term and short term behavioral characteristics
including the transmission of STI and sexual risk behaviors. According to this belief,