Biomedical Research

Adolescents in rural areas may face troubles due to lack of right kind of information regard-ing their own physical and or sexual developments. The need to address this problem through health education by health professionals needs to be ascertained. The objective is to determine the effectiveness of a reproductive health education intervention programme in improving the knowledge of adolescent girls aged between 14-19 years in Kuppam mandal, chittoor dt, Andhra Pradesh. The study was carried out over a period of 8 months. A total of 656 girls in the age group of 14-19 years were randomly selected from 3 high schools (class X) & 3 intermediate colleges(class XI &XII) in kuppam mandal, chittoor dt, Andhra Pradesh. The reproductive health education package developed in consultation with par-ents, teachers & adolescents was used to educate the girls. A 50 item structured question-naire was used to test the knowledge of all the participants about the reproductive health be-fore & after the education session. The data was tabulated & analyzed using SPSS version 11.0 for windows .Findings were described in terms of proportions & percentages, chi square test was used to test the effect of intervention. Reproductive health Knowledge score improved significantly after intervention. A significant increase in overall knowledge re-garding menstrual cycle, ovulation, fertilization & pregnancy by 44.5% was noted (95%CI=42.5,46.5;P<0.001); knowledge regarding contraception improved remarkably from 33.7% to 97.4%(P<0.0001);A significant improvement in the knowledge about trans-mission & prevention of STDs was noted after intervention (P<0.0001). A reproductive health education intervention programme improves the knowledge & attitude among rural adolescent girls regarding reproductive health

Author(s): K. Malleshappa, Shivaram Krishna, Nandini C
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