P407 ‘MTV shuga’: mass media communication, HSV2 and sexual health in adolescent girls and young women in rural south africa

Background Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) In South Africa are at high risk of HIV and early pregnancy. MTV-Shuga, a mass-media edu-drama, improved some sexual health outcomes in a randomised trial amongst young people in Nigeria. We used the national free-to-air TV screening of MTV-Shuga (the “Down South” series), concurrent with the roll-out of a large scale-up of combination HIV prevention for AGYW - to test the hypothesis that mass-media edu-drama can improve the sexual health of AGYW in a rural and resource-constrained area of KwaZulu-Natal. Methods We followed a representative population-based prospective cohort of females aged 13–23 between May 2017 and September 2018. We measured the relationship between exposure to MTV-Shuga (i.e., reporting seeing ≥1 of 24 episodes; able to recall any storyline) and: incident HSV-2; incident pregnancy; condom use at last sex; uptake of HIV-testing and contraception; and awareness of HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). Results 2183 (85.5%) eligible participants were surveyed at baseline, of whom 1853 (86.5%) completed follow-up. MTV-Shuga exposure was low – 152 (8.2%) reported seeing ≥1 episode and 73 (3.9%) recalled any storyline – while teenage pregnancy and incident HSV-2 were high (6.4 and 11.3/100 person-years respectively). MTV-Shuga exposed AGYW were from wealthier households (p Conclusion AGYW exposure to the MTV-Shuga edu-drama was very low in a setting where AGYW remain at high risk for STI, HIV and early pregnancy. Nevertheless, there is a suggestion that those who were exposed to MTV-Shuga had better sexual health outcomes. There is a need for strategies to raise uptake of such edu-dramas, and to evaluate whether wider coverage leads to population impact. Disclosure No significant relationships.