The Peer Context: Relationship Analysis to Inform Peer Education Programs in Fort Portal, Uganda

• Author / Creator

  VanSpronsen, Amanda Dianne

• Uganda has a predominantly young population, and there is a need for targeted HIV/AIDS prevention programming. Peer education is a health intervention style that has been used with appreciable success in adolescent groups, but some issues exist. We hypothesize that more can be done in the program planning stages to increase the chances of sustained success, and have completed two different types of cross-sectional analyses to investigate this aspect. We used Social Network Analysis to examine the social structure of two secondary schools in Fort Portal, Uganda. We identified existing modes of influence and natural channels of communication, and used these to create a feasible model of peer educator selection. We also studied present levels of communication about sexual and reproductive health within youth relationships, and found that youth are willing to talk to their friends, but high levels of communication do not generally occur. This provides an important point of entry for health promotion programs.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Sexual health
  • Health behaviour
  • Peer education
  • Social network analysis
  • Population health
  • Adolescents
  • Uganda

• Graduation date

  Fall 2009

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3RC74

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.