UCL Research Department of Primary Care and Population Health

The Sexunzipped website for sexual wellbeing for young people: early results of a pilot online RCT

Julia Bailey, Elizabeth Murray, Ona McCarthy, Ken Carswell, Greta Rait, Graham Hart, Irwin Nazareth, Andrew Copas, Menelaos Pavlou, Cari Free, Rebecca French, Fiona Stevenson, Tracy Roberts

Background

The Sexunzipped website is an interactive, tailored website which is underpinned by psychological and educational theory. It features material about safer sex, relationships and sexual pleasure, with interactive activities to encourage self-reflection and develop confidence and communication skills. We are currently conducting a pilot online randomised controlled trial, and present early results from this. Online trials may recruit large numbers but often have large losses to follow-up, so we will report on the success of strategies to retain participants.

Method

Pilot online RCT to compare the interactive intervention website to an information-only control website. Recruitment, randomisation and self-reported sexual health outcome measurement were all conducted entirely online. Participants had access to the intervention or control websites, with email prompts to encourage use. 50% of participants were asked to return a postal urine sample for genital Chlamydia testing at 3 months, and a £10 or £20 voucher was offered for complete outcome data.

Results

We recruited 2,005 people aged 16 to 20 from across the UK, with 3 month outcome data currently being analysed. We will present data on retention, commenting on the feasibility of online sexual health outcome measurement and postal urine sampling. We will also report on changes in sexual health outcomes including genital Chlamydia prevalence.