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A Field Guide to Designing a Communication Strategy

A resource for health communication professionals

The purpose of this strategic communication field guide is to provide practical guidance to those who are in a position to design, implement, or support a strategic health communication effort. The emphasis of the guide is on developing a comprehensive, long-term approach to health communication that responds appropriately to audience needs.

Institutional author(s): Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (JHU CCP)
Publication date: 2003

Guide Web page

Self-administration with UniJect® of the once-a-month injectable contraceptive Cyclofem®

The objective of this study was to evaluate women’s acceptance of and ability to self-administrate the injectable contraceptive Cyclofem® using prefilled UniJect® devices. A total of 102 women were invited to participate in the study. Fourteen women (13.7%) refused to participate. Of the remaining 88 women, 32 women (31.4%) consented to participate and were trained using oranges but were still afraid of the procedure and ultimately refused to self-administer the injections. Only 56 women (55%) ultimately self-injected Cyclofem with UniJect. They performed a total of 144 injections, all of them on the ventral side of the thigh. When nurses evaluated women’s ability to activate the devices, they found that more than 80% were successful in both the group of women that later self-administered the injections and the group that did not. The evaluation of the self-administered injection technique showed that more than 90% of the women correctly self-administered the contraceptive using UniJect. With respect to the opinion of the women about the self-administration of the contraceptive, more than 50% (32 of 56) of women who self-injected preferred to self-administer the injection and said that they wished to continue with the self-administration, one-third (17) reported that they were afraid, and seven women (12.5%) expressed the opinion that the injection in the thigh was more painful than the administration in the buttocks or arm. In conclusion, our study showed that women can be trained to successfully self-administer the monthly injectable contraceptive Cyclofem and generally respond positively to UniJect.

Institutional author(s): Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Program for International Training in Health (INTRAH) Brazil, Hospital Regional Asa Sul, Centro de Assistencia Integral a Saude da Mulher
Individual author(s): Luis Bahamondes, Nadia M. Marchi, Hitomi Miura Nakagava, Maria Lourdes R. de Melo, Maria de Lourdes Cristofoletti, Eliano Pellini, Regina H. Scozzafave, Carlos Petta
Publication date: November, 1997

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