# Development of a digital decision support tool to facilitate developmentally appropriate adolescent contraceptive counseling in primary care

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · 2022 · $208,586

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract:
Contraceptive counseling is the process by which a health professional educates a person about their
contraceptive options, including efficacy, proper use, and side effects, and helps them choose their optimal
method. However, contraceptive counseling as typically implemented in primary care settings is not
developmentally tailored to adolescents’ unique sexual, cognitive, and social development, resulting in
suboptimal patterns of use and negative sexual and reproductive health outcomes that disproportionately
impact vulnerable communities and perpetuate a cycle of health and economic disadvantage. Further,
adolescents, particularly youth of color, have reported feeling coerced by providers to choose and continue a
long-acting method. Although rates of adolescent pregnancy and childbearing have declined steadily over the
past two decades, adolescents in the U.S. continue to experience disproportionately higher pregnancy and
childbearing rates than their counterparts in other high-income countries. Racial/ethnic and sexual/gender
minority youth have particularly high rates of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Adolescents’ pregnancies are much more likely than adults’ to be unintended. Children of adolescent mothers
are at elevated risk of negative birth outcomes, physical and mental health difficulties, and of becoming
teenage parents themselves. Individuals who first give birth as adolescents experience lower educational and
economic attainment across their lifetimes. Further, rates STIs are rising among US adolescents. Without
timely treatment, STIs can result in serious lifelong health problems, including risks of cancer, chronic pain,
and infertility in adulthood. The long-term goal of our research is to tailor adolescents’ contraceptive counseling
experience in order to improve contraceptive satisfaction, continuation, and consistent use, reduce
experiences of coercion, and reduce unintended pregnancies and STIs. In this project, we will work with youth
of diverse racial/ethnic and sexual/gender identities to create a digital decision support tool to assess
adolescent knowledge, concerns, and preferences on contraception prior to the visit, then deliver the
information to the provider to facilitate a focused, developmentally appropriate contraceptive counseling
session. Specifically, we will identify the features of a digital decision tool deemed necessary by youth to
facilitate their contraceptive decision making and by primary care clinicians to feasibly and effectively
implement in primary care visits. We will design the tool and optimize its usability. This project will yield the
necessary data for a future R01 application supporting a clinical trial of the tool.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10526094
- **Project number:** 1R21HD107460-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Julie M Maslowsky
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $208,586
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-12 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10526094

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10526094, Development of a digital decision support tool to facilitate developmentally appropriate adolescent contraceptive counseling in primary care (1R21HD107460-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10526094. Licensed CC0.

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