Process Evaluation of a Three-Year Community-Based Peer Education Intervention for HIV Prevention among Yemeni Young People

Abstract

This community process evaluation highlights key enabling factors that facilitated the implementation of a community peer education program for youth HIV prevention in four poor and vulnerable areas of Aden, Yemen. It also explains the implementation process and provides a deeper understanding of the impact evaluation outcomes, which revealed improved HIV knowledge and risk perception and decreased stigma and risky behavior. This process evaluation was based on qualitative methodologies, where five focus group discussions and 15 in-depth interviews were conducted among 52 participants: community peer educators, community focal points, targeted young people, and local councils. The results revealed that contributing factors to implementing the peer education program had been community participation, mobilization of targeted communities, and capacity building of all those included in the intervention. Existing community-based organizations like the Social Service Centre played a key role in building trust with the targeted communities and linking HIV peer education intervention to other existing community services. This process evaluation could provide lessons learned for replicating similar youth peer education programs in conservative communities.

Process evaluation of school-based peer education for HIV prevention among Yemeni adolescents

“…This gender difference is a reflection of the traditional Yemeni setting, which gives more freedom to boys to discuss sensitive sexual issues compared with girls, and is similar to existing research among young people in Yemen (Al-Iryani et al 2010; Al-Serouri et al 2010). …”

Barriers and Facilitators to HIV Prevention Interventions for Reducing Risky Sexual Behavior Among Youth Worldwide: A Systematic Review

“…The characteristics of the included studies are summarized in Table 1. Studies included in the review consisted of eight qualititative studies [32,[36][37][38][39][42][43][44], four quantitative studies [34,35,40,41] and one mixed methods study [33]. Of the quantitative studies, two studies were quasiexperimental studies without a comparison group [34,35], one study was a quasi-experimental study with a comparison group [40], and one study was a randomised controlled trial [41].…”

“…Seven countries were represented across the included studies including the United States of America [34,35,37,[40][41][42], Tanzania [43,44], Yemen [32], Myanmar [33], South Africa [36], Uganda [38] and Mozambique [39].…”

“…Participants were youth or intervention receipients in eight studies [34][35][36][37][38][41][42][43]. One study included youth and implementers [33], one study involved youth, implementers and community members [32], one study included youth, family members and community members [39], one study incorporated youth and community members [44], and one study included implementers [40]. The number of participants within the included studies ranged from two to 343.…”

Effects of a peer education on cardiac self‐efficacy and readmissions in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery: a randomized‐controlled trial

“…The friendly relationship between them are needed for reliance on peers (Sharif et al , ). In a study conducted on 52 patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), it was indicated that applying peer education increases the patients' motivation and also contributes to the reduction of risky behaviours and increase exercise programmes (Al‐Iryani et al , ). Peer education is based on the fact that human beings, through exchanging their experiences and information, can improve their skills and dexterity (Dickinson, ; Foubert, ).…”