Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Evidence Gap Map
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Other health outcomes
Other adolescent health outcomes not captured by any of the other categories in this grouping, for example, other violence, mental health and mortality.
Sexual behaviour
Measures of adolescents’ initiation or frequency of, or abstinence from, sexual intercourse. This category includes the age of sexual debut, number of sexual partners, experiences of transactional sex and indices of risky sexual behaviours.
Communication and support-seeking
Measures of adolescents’ communication with parents, caregivers or sexual partners and interpersonal support between adolescents.
Pregnancy and births
Measures of adolescent fertility, pregnancy, unwanted pregnancy, first birth and similar indicators.
Abortion
Any measure of induced termination of pregnancy among adolescents.
HIV/STI testing and incidence
Outcomes directly related to HIV and other STIs, including testing, incidence and prevalence.
Sexual and intimate partner violence
Measures of sexual and intimate partner violence incidence
Providers and service quality
Outcomes related to changes in provision of healthcare and overall service quality. Outcomes in this category can be measured at the provider level (measuring skills or approaches) or at the adolescent level (such as satisfaction with health services).
Livelihoods
Outcomes concerning adolescent work (for example, number of work hours), earnings and livelihoods training.
Marital status
Age at marriage or marital status.
Parents and family
All measures at the level of parents or other family members related to ASRH. This includes measures of normative change, parent-child communication (asked at parent level) and types of parenting (negative or positive).
Community and CBOs
ASRH outcomes at the community level include measures of normative change, community support and the capacity of relevant community-based organisations (CBOs).
Laws and policy
Outcomes measuring changes in policies and laws related to ASRH as a result of the intervention (for example, adolescent-friendly policies or policies around contraceptive access).
Knowledge and awareness
Knowledge or awareness around SRH, and associated rights, laws, health services, commodities, etc.
Contraception and other prevention
Adolescents’ use of any technology or method to prevent pregnancy and/or STIs.
Menstrual hygiene
Indicators related to adolescent menstrual hygiene such as sanitary pad use and washing habits.
Accessing and utilising services
Outcomes measuring adolescents’ access and take-up of services, for example, antenatal check-ups or STI treatment at a clinic.
Cost analysis
Coded if included studies provide data or analysis on cost or cost-effectiveness.
Attitudes, self-efficacy and normative change
Measures of normative change among adolescents, attitudes, beliefs and perceptions around SRH and related topics, self-efficacy and empowerment.
Education outcomes
Measures include adolescent school enrolment, dropout or the percentage of participants with a primary school certificate.
Effects by sex
Coded if study either disaggregates results by sex or focuses only on either adolescent boys or girls.
Effects by rural or urban area
Coded if study either disaggregates results by adolescents living in rural and urban areas or reports that the evaluation was conducted in either a rural or urban area.
Effects for very young adolescents
Coded if study provides data on the effects for very young adolescents, aged 10–14 years. This included either studies that include only participants in that age range or studies that disaggregated results by age and provided specific effect sizes for very young adolescents.
Effects for other subgroups
Coded if study provides disaggregated results or separate effect sizes for other sub-populations or vulnerable groups. These include adolescents identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ), out-of-school adolescents, commercial sex workers, first-time parents, adolescents with disabilities, adolescents disaggregated by socio-economic status, same sex relations among adolescent boys, refugees, migrant adolescents, etc.
Effects by marriage status
Coded if study presents results separately or only for married or unmarried adolescents. The authors needed to note specifically that the adolescents were unmarried; we did not make assumptions based on the age range or otherwise.
Teacher training
Training teachers how to teach SRH and support students’ SRH needs. Does not include standard teacher training that accompanies a specific course or curriculum.
Sexual health education and other instruction at school
Interventions that offer instruction, training and courses at school as part of – or added to – the school curriculum, or other activities initiated by school staff (for example, open days) or by adolescents (for example, awareness programmes) during school hours. This includes comprehensive sexuality education, abstinence-only programming and all other specific curricula.
Courses and other instruction outside of school
Interventions that offer courses and instruction other than livelihoods training outside school hours. This includes comprehensive sexuality education, abstinence-only programming and all other specific curricula.
Health services and counselling in school
Providing health and/or counselling services specific to SRH in a school setting.
Hygiene and sanitation improvements in school
Improvements to toilets and other physical structures at school
Provider training and youth-friendly service adjustments
Interventions that introduce youth- or adolescent-friendly services or otherwise train providers to respond better to adolescent needs in terms of SRH. Efforts to increase youth-friendliness can also include introducing younger providers or outreach services.
Commodity distribution and supply chain improvements
Interventions that focus on commodity distribution (for example, condoms) and supply chain improvements (for example, increasing availability of contraceptives).
Community health workers and home visits
Interventions that use community health workers and home visits by health care professionals for service delivery (for example, HIV testing or providing contraception)
Vouchers and subsidies
Interventions that provide vouchers or subsidies to adolescents or their families. Vouchers may cover healthcare costs or school attendance costs (for example, school uniforms). Subsidies could aim to reduce the cost of specific supplies (for example, sanitary pads).
Income generation and savings programmes
Microfinance, employability training, vocational training and savings programmes that aim to affect ASRH outcomes.
Cash transfer programmes
Unconditional or conditional cash transfer programmes that aim to affect SRH outcomes for adolescents.
Social groups and clubs
Groups and clubs that typically aim to offer safe spaces where adolescents can meet friends, engage in discussions, access informational materials, seek help, or participate in training and sports. The primary focus of these groups is to provide social support or an access point for information and care related to SRH.
Drama and music
Approaches using drama or music to communicate SRH messages.
Family mobilisation and dialogue
Interventions working with the families of adolescents in order to change the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of parents or to encourage dialogue on SRH topics within a family. Typically, interventions in this category aim to improve the frequency and quality of parent-child communication about sensitive topics (e.g. risky sexual behaviours). Other aspects targeted by interventions in this category are caregiver decision-making, caregiver monitoring of children, and general awareness and knowledge training on aspects relevant in the lives of adolescent children.
Community mobilisation and dialogue
Interventions that directly engage the broader community in ASRH. Activities in this intervention category include meetings with community leaders or community members to address beliefs, fears or general awareness of ASRH issues. This category also includes adult groups that discuss topics related to raising adolescents and providing them with support.
Policy advocacy
Interventions that advocate for specific policy or legal changes to improve healthcare, services, legal access to services, information provision or other topics relevant to ASRH.
Policies and laws
Changes in policies and laws that could affect ASRH, such as laws around access to contraception or abortion services, or introducing mandatory education requirements.
Mass media
Interventions employing mass media (for example, radio and television) to deliver ASRH-focused messages.
mHealth and other ICT
Interventions employing mobile health services or ICT (information and communications technology) approaches. Examples include using particular websites such as Facebook or SMS messages to provide health information. In some cases the intervention itself is delivered on the internet.
Peer education and mentorship
Interventions using peers (adolescents in the same age group or slightly older) as intervention facilitators. Peers can have different and multiple roles: providing training or instruction, disseminating information materials, mentoring, or referring and accompanying adolescents to health centres.
