Impact of Health Education on The Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Teachers Regarding Reproductive Health of Adolescents of Amritsar, Punjab LC18-LC21
Correspondence
Dr. Pushapindra Kaushal,
Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Old DMC, Civil Lines, Ludhiana, Punjab-141001, India.
E-mail : drpushapindrakaushal@yahoo.co.in
Context: Teachers play an important role in guiding the adolescents. Adolescents are ill equipped to deal with the impending changes in their body which makes them vulnerable to STDs, HIV/AIDS and premarital sex. This study attempts to study the impact of reproductive health education on the knowledge, attitude and practices of teachers, about which only a few studies are available.
Aims: To study the impact of health education on the knowledge, attitude and practices of teachers regarding reproductive health of adolescents.
Settings: Senior Secondary schools of Amritsar and Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Amritsar, Punjab, India. Study participants: Male teachers of senior secondary schools of Amritsar teaching class 9th-12th.
Study design: Educational intervention study.
Sampling method: Purposive sampling. Materials and Methods: The study was started with 155 teachers (teaching class 9th -12th) who willingly participated from 50 senior secondary schools of Amritsar district. It was carried out in three phases. In first phase, after taking informed consent, the teachers filled a pretested questionnaire which was followed by an interactive session on reproductive health in second phase. In third phase, to study the impact of the interactive session and the sustainability of knowledge gained, they were again administered the same questionnaire after a period of 3 months.
Statistical Analysis: Microsoft Excel, SPSS, Chi-square test.
Results: Maximum 74 (47.7%) teachers were aware of the psychosocial problems of adolescents. Majority 110 (71%) of the teachers had only partial knowledge about pubertal changes. 117 (75.5%) teachers were unaware about genital hygiene. Only 33 (21.3%) teachers had adequate knowledge about different STDs. 91 (58.7%) and 54 (34.8%) of teachers had adequate knowledge about routes of transmission and prevention of AIDS respectively. Only 37 (23.9%) teachers were imparting sex education to students. After intervention significant favorable changes were seen in their knowledge, attitude and practices regarding most of above mentioned topics.
Conclusion: Although the baseline knowledge of teachers in most aspects of reproductive health of adolescents was found to be low, significant favourable changes were observed after health education.