Contraceptive Information Co-designed by Adolescents and Young Adults Addresses Misconceptions

Patient education materials are usually developed for adults, by adults – even if those materials are important for young people as well.

That disconnect had become particularly obvious for members of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Division of Adolescent Medicine who help teenagers and their parents learn about contraception.

One the ways that the hospital works to track and improve the health of entire populations is through its comprehensive Pediatric Vital Signs initiative. And one of those “vital sign” metrics is teenage pregnancy prevention.

Good information is crucial in making an impact on that metric.

“We were hearing from teenagers about what they had learned online or from their friends, and there is a lot of misinformation out there. Teens also have a lot of concerns about hormones, side effects and other issues that typical educational materials weren’t addressing in an approachable way,” said Johanna Taylor, APRN-CNP, part of the Young Women's Contraceptive Services Program (BC4Teens) team at Nationwide Children’s. “We can correct some of that in personal conversations, but we didn’t have materials designed for a young adult audience. So we decided to work with some teens to create them.”

The result is a new toolkit – co-designed by participants of Nationwide Children’s High School Career Academy – that specifically speaks to the concerns and questions of teens and young adults.

The career academy is a long-running effort from Nationwide Children’s to introduce high school juniors and seniors to health care careers. Those students are often already interested in medical education, and they are motivated to help their peers. Taylor and her colleagues obtained consent from those students’ parents for participation in expert-guided sessions to answer these questions:

• What would you want your friends or peers to know about birth control?
• What would you like to know about birth control?
• What are you seeing on social media about birth control and what apps do you usually use?
• Is there anywhere else you usually get information on birth control?
• Who can you talk to about birth control?
• Where would you go for birth control?
• Why do you think some people don’t get on birth control?

“The themes that emerged were often about information that was relevant to their lived experiences,” Taylor said. “They cared about privacy and access. They wanted to know about possible weight gain and other side effects. They had heard on social media about the impact of hormones but weren’t sure who to trust about that information. Some had basic logistical and biological questions, like the size and location of implants and intrauterine devices and how they affected different parts of the body.”

With those themes in mind, Taylor, Ashley Ebersole, MD – the physician lead of the Pediatric Vital Signs Teen Pregnancy Prevention project – and their colleagues worked with a Nationwide Children’s creative services designer on a colorful body map, explanatory key and flashcards that could be used in a clinical setting or could be sent home. The new materials went through a literacy analysis for readability, and teens tested them and offered suggestions for improvement.

“These designs are not only patient-centered; they really were co-designed with the students from career academy,” said Taylor.

Taylor and her colleagues are now working on an implementation plan, including protocols for ongoing evaluation and improvement of the materials.

“We are always sensitive about the most appropriate ways to approach contraceptive education, in partnership with parents and families," Taylor said. “We hope these materials are one more avenue for having these crucial conversations.”

Published April 2026