Assessment of knowledge of reproductive health of adolescent school girls from 13-16 years with special reference to HIV-AIDS

Abstract

Background: Adolescent period includes the age group of 10-19 years. This period is crucial as many important physiological changes like puberty occur during this period. Menarche is an important milestone in a girl’s life and appropriate knowledge about safe and hygienic practices regarding menstruation and reproductive health as well as HIV is necessary to prevent adverse outcomes. The main aim and objective of this study is to ;(1) To assess the level of awareness about reproductive health among adolescent school girls aged 13 to16 years and (2) To compare awareness between girls from Municipal school and Private school . Methods: This study was conducted on a convenient sample of 176 adolescent school girls from two English Medium Schools located in Mumbai. The girls were of age group 13-16 years from class IX and X. School ‘A’ catering girls from low socio-economic class and school ‘B’ to higher socio-economic class. Results: Study showed that 9.4% of school A and 25.4% of school B had appropriate knowledge about pubertal changes. 77.1% from school A and 43.1% from school B practiced restrictions during menses. 51.2% got information about menses from their mothers. Only 13.5% from school A and 40.2% from school B had knowledge about family planning. 76.1% girls had heard of HIV. Conclusions: Knowledge regarding reproductive health and HIV-AIDS was significantly more in school B than in school A.