The Effect of School-Linked Module-Based Friendly-Health Education on Adolescents’ Sexual and Reproductive Health Knowledge, Guji Zone, Ethiopia - Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background: Although access to sexual and reproductive health information is the right and a critical component of health policy, it is not well addressed in pastoral communities. This study assessed the effect of School-Lined Module-based friendly health education on adolescents' sexual and reproductive health knowledge in the pastoral community of Guji Zone, Ethiopia. Methods: A two-arm cluster Randomized control trial study with pre-post evaluation was conducted among interventions (n=375) compared with control (n=384) in Gorodola and Wadara high schools. Comparing an intervention to a control group, pre-posttests, and post-posttests were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. The data was collected using 25 Self-administered questionnaires and analyzed using paired-sample independent t-tests and linear regressions to study the relationship between the outcome and independent variables. Results: We collected the data from 759 adolescents among 15 intervention and 15 control clusters. The results have shown that as compared to control arms, the mean sexual and reproductive health Knowledge score was significant higher in the intervention clusters (375) 73.3%, vs (384) 66.

Exploring factors influencing sexual and reproductive health knowledge among in-school adolescents in Nigeria

“…Adolescents with higher self-efficacy are more likely to seek out and retain SRH knowledge, and their outcome expectations regarding safe sexual practices and reproductive health can motivate their learning and behavior (Hensen et al, 2023;Langat et al, 2024). Environmental factors, including school curricula, teacher attitudes, peer influences, and family communication, also significantly shape adolescents' SRH knowledge (Abdurahman et al, 2022;Boku et al, 2024;Parmar et al, 2024). Schools that provide comprehensive SRH education and foster open discussions can enhance students' understanding and awareness.…”