Publication:

Attitude of adolescent school students towards reproductive health education

Background Adolescence is a life’s crucial transition phase with establishment of reproductive capacity. Sexual experimentations and lack of Reproductive Health information during this phase expose adolescents to serious health threats. Adolescents should have access to scientific Reproductive Health information to develop healthy attitude towards Reproductive Health issues. This study was undertaken to find out attitude of adolescent school students towards Reproductive Health Education and to identify communication pattern regarding reproductive health issues.

Methods The study was cross sectional and carried out on 500 Adolescent Higher secondary school students in Solapur city. Pre-tested & Self-administered Questionnaire was used for collection of data.

Results This study showed that students had favourable attitude towards Reproductive Health Education as majority (84.8%) of them recommended Reproductive Health Education in school curriculum. Lecture by expert was noted by 47% students as desired method of imparting Reproductive Health Education. Regarding Reproductive Health issues, 52.4% students preferred to communicate with Doctors/Health Workers followed by friends (35.6%).

Conclusions Our study stressed the need of providing correct scientific information to adolescents regarding reproductive health by incorporating Reproductive Health Education in school curriculum.