“EFFECTIVENESS OF HEALTH EDUCATION THROUGH DIRECT INTERVENTION AND PEER-LED INTERVENTION ON KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE INCLUDING MYTHS AND RESTRICTIONS AMONG ADOLESCENT GIRLS REGARDING MENSTRUAL HYGIENE”
Abstract
According to Journal of Sexual and Reproductive Health (2020)1the transition from infancy to adulthood occurs during adolescence. Sexual growth and pubertal development happen during this time. Teenage girls have significant gaps in their understanding about menstruation and menstrual hygiene. Teenage females are frequently hesitant to bring up this subject with their parents, friends, or anyone else. Adolescent females as a result become ignorant of scientific truths and hygienic health practices. Improved understanding and safe menstrual practices will reduce the risk of STI’s and their negative effects. In this situation, providing educational intervention to girls at the school level would be suitable. Increased awareness of menstruation from an early age may therefore increase safe practices and lessen the pain of millions of women. Hence an experimental study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of health education on menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls residing in selected rural areas of Ujjain through selected methodology. Three groups pretest-posttest design was adopted. 306 adolescent girls fulfilling the selection criteria were selected through purposive random sampling technique. Pre-test was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice related to menstruation through direct intervention to the first group, peer-led intervention to the second group and no intervention to the control group. Health education was delivered to the first group through direct intervention and to the second group through peer-led intervention but not to the control group Post-test was also conducted using the same tool and method. Statistical analysis revealed that there was significant association between pre-test knowledge score and socio-demographic variables like age, type of family, number of siblings, religion, and education of mother, education of father, occupation of mother, and occupation of father, family income, and type of house The paired t test value between pretest and post-test knowledge score of the direct intervention group score (“t”=36.86) is highly significant at the level p≤0.001. The paired t test value between pretest and post-test knowledge score of the peer-led intervention group score (“t”=27.18) is highly significant at the level p≤0.0001. The paired t test value between pretest and post-test knowledge score of the control group score (“t”=0.006) is not significant at the level p≤0.0001. The test statistic F equals 782.103224, which is not in the 95% region of acceptance: [∞3.0255]. The observed effect size f is large that indicates that the magnitude of the difference between the averages is large. The pair-wise comparison M1 = 15.06 M3 = 3.73, shows the large difference in direct-intervention group with control group with Tuckey’s honest significance difference as 11.33
Keywords: Menstrual Hygiene, Menstruation, Adolescent Girls, Direct-intervention, peer-led intervention, Health Education
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