Feasibility of a School-based Study of Health Risk Behaviors in Ethnic Fijian Female Adolescents in Fiji: The HEALTHY Fiji Study.
Objective: Behavioral risk assessment is critical to developing intervention strategies to promote adolescent health, but also presents logistical, ethical, and scientific challenges. This paper reports on feasibility of a school-based study of health-risk behaviors in ethnic Fijian adolescent girls.
Methods: We assessed feasibility of school-based participation and implementation of assessment in the local vernacular language by examining observational data and by calculating response rates and as well as language selection and item completion rates.
Results: All invited study area schools participated (n=12). Response rates were >70% for study participation among eligible study participants in the overall sample as well as the peri-urban and rural sub-samples. The majority of respondents (71.9%) selected the local Fijian vernacular language version rather than the English version (28.1%). Although 43.6% of respondents completed a questionnaire in a language not spoken as the primary language at home, only ten respondents (1.9%) were assessed as having difficulty with the language of the self-report questionnaire. Item completion rates for the primary outcomes were >90% for both study phases and in both language versions. Study participant response rate for further assessment of concerning symptoms was also very high and teachers were successfully recruited for participation in training and accepting referrals to support these students at each participating school.
Conclusions: School-based behavioral risk data collection in the vernacular language was feasible. Evaluation and referral of individual study participants with concerning symptoms to educators for further assistance and support also appeared feasible. We suggest that close collaboration among Fiji-based and specialty consultants to address scientific, linguistic, logistical, and ethical challenges were contributing factors to study feasibility.