Date of Scholarly Project Submission

7-2018

Degree Type

Scholarly Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Department

Nursing

Faculty Chairperson

Melissa Romero

Second Committee Member

Kristi Robinia

Third Committee Member

Anne Stein

Abstract

In 2016, there were over 1.5 million cases of chlamydia reported in the United States with prevalence rates highest in people under 25 years of age (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). Researchers have suggested that college aged adults (age 18-25) should be targeted for chlamydia educational programs because these individuals are lacking in knowledge about chlamydia prevention, infection, symptoms, and screening methods (Goundry, Finlay, & Llewellyn, 2013; Rutledge, Siebert, Chonody, & Killian, 2011). This scholarly project utilized a quasi-experimental, single-group pretest-posttest design and used a modified version of the Sex, Drugs, and Rock’n’Roll Questionnaire designed by Lim et al. (2012) to identify whether implementation of an online course entitled Chlamydia Awareness Project increased intention to test for chlamydia in a convenience sample of college freshman males at a Midwestern university. In addition, knowledge of chlamydia (including risk factors for infection, symptoms, and screening methods) was assessed. College freshmen males were targeted for this project because they are at an increased risk for chlamydia infection and lack clear screening recommendations (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2013; LeFevre, 2014). A Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare median Likert survey scores in participants prior to and after the online educational intervention. Results from the analyses did not identify statistically significant differences in respect to intention to test for chlamydia, risk factor for infection, or symptoms. However, there were statistically significant differences in participants’ knowledge about non-invasive urine based testing (p = .043). Limitations included a small sample size and lack of a reliable and valid tool which limits the ability to generalize these findings to the population. The results of this scholarly project provide some support for the idea that a brief, online educational intervention increases knowledge about non-invasive screening methods for chlamydia infection in college freshmen males.

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