CHOICES3: Sickle Cell Disease Parenting CHOICES

An innovative web application to provide interactive information about reproductive health options for people with SCD or SCT. CHOICES is a multimedia intervention that provides targeted and tailored information for participants to become informed ns about their reproductive health options. Targeted to their sex and tailored to their SC reproductive health knowledge, reproductive health behavior during the previous 6 mo, and parenting plan (e.g., intention to have child with SCD or not), CHOICES presents information about options to help the participant achieve their parenting plan through reproductive partner selection based on sickle cell status, prenatal testing, ovum and sperm donation, advanced reproductive technologies, and options to avoid pregnancy or adopt. The website will be housed on secure University of Florida (UF) servers and accessible via computers or mobile devices (e.g., tablets, smart phones); device capture will inform plans for long-term dissemination.

e-Book contains information typically shared in clinical SCD care, including stick figure representation of inheritance because the investigator considers it unethical to withhold this basic information. It does not include other information related to the SCKnowIQ knowledge items or any of the behaviors needed to implement a parenting plan. Although not as long as CHOICES, the e-Book is sufficiently long, attractive, and engaging to retain participants randomized to the usual care control group; key factors for an adequate control condition. Interestingly, during the study and in interviews after the study, many e-Book participants commented that they were pleased to be assigned to the intervention group (they had not), which indicates that the control condition is sufficient for its intent--2-yr longitudinal retention of the sample. Also, human contact is the same for both groups, and the time-on-task on the computer is unlikely to influence study knowledge and behavior endpoints.