KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION ON PSYCHOLOGICAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL AND GYNAECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS AMONG ADOLESCENT SCHOOLGIRLS OF EASTERN INDIA

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Sex education aims to reduce the risks of potentially negative outcome from sexualbehavior such as fear and stigma of menstruation, unwanted and unplanned pregnancies and sexuallytransmitted infections including HIV. Hence, this study was conducted to determine sex educationknowledge level of school going adolescents in semi urban area of Midnapore, West Bengal, India.METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in two selected premier secondary school of girls inthe Midnapore Town from September – October 2007. A total of 521 adolescent aged 10-19 years wereselected randomly from two secondary schools of girls. However, schools were selected purposively. Allinformation was collected by using open-ended pre-tested questionnaire.RESULTS: Of the total subjects 94.2% of them were in the age of 13-16 years. Nearly, 94% respondentsreported their age at menarche and maximum i.e. 54% respondents experienced in the age of 11 – 13years. It was observed that 18%, 60.7% and 21.3% of the respondents had good knowledge, moderate orsome knowledge and very poor knowledge of puberty, pubertal problems and their prevention. Thirtythree percent said that they had faced one or some other kind of physical problems and out of them 60%indicated that they had visited to a doctor for their problems. The suffering of any gynecologicalproblems had 2.48 (95% CI: 1.42 – 4.36) and 1.94 (95% CI: 1.01 – 3.73) times greater among subjectswith little or some knowledge and minimum or no knowledge compare to subjects with good knowledgeof sex education.CONCLUSION: Thus, the results show that not only knowledge regarding sex education was pooramong the subjects but also their knowledge regarding sexual infections including AIDS was notsatisfactory. School based sex education programs are particularly good at providing information, skillsdevelopment and attitude clarification in more formal way through lesson within the curriculum.Therefore, appropriate sex education program should be initiated from the adolescence to prevent healthhazards.