AIDS and behavior
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Peer education is popular both with governments and with young people. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a government-led peer education program on the self-reported sexual health behavior and related psychosocial outcomes of adolescent students in public high schools in the Western Cape of South Africa. Grade 10 students (n = 3934), at 30 public high schools (15 intervention, 15 comparison) were recruited to the study. ⋯ The findings suggest that the peer education program was not effective in reducing the age of sexual debut or condom use. Issues around the implementation of the program suggested that this was sub-optimal. Governments who advocate widespread use of peer education as an approach need to recognise barriers to implementation and ensure ongoing monitoring and evaluation of effectiveness and cost effectiveness.