Effect of Planned Health Educational Program on Menstrual Knowledge and Practices among Adolescent Saudi Girls

Abstract

Objectives: To assess knowledge, practices and quality of life of adolescent Saudi girls regarding menstruation and menstrual self-hygienic care. To find the relation between knowledge, practices and selected variables of quality of life of adolescent Saudi girls regarding menstruation and menstrual self-hygienic care. To evaluate the outcome and impact of health education program on knowledge and practices of adolescent Saudi girls regarding menstruation and menstrual self-hygienic care. Methods: An experimental study was conducted using pre-posttest design on a (39) Saudi adolescent girl students at the seventh secondary school, Al-Khobar City in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Two tools used; first tool is structured questionnaire sheet, which was developed by the researcher and revised by three experts in the specialty. This tool used to assess the Saudi adolescent girl students' knowledge and practices regarding menstruation. The second tool was a quality of life scale which developed by World Health Organization. It included questions about quality of life, general daily activities; number of times suffering from pain and negative feelings and ability to study. After that the pretest was done. Data collected and analyzed. Accordingly, the researcher prepared the contents of the health educational program based on the adolescent Saudi girls’ level of knowledge and practices. Then the researcher prepared the contents, and then divided and implemented in two consecutive sessions. Immediately after implementing the program sessions, the same questionnaire sheets filled up individually by the participants as an immediate post-test. A comparison between the pre- and post-tests done to identify the effect of planned health educational program on menstrual knowledge and practices among adolescent Saudi girls using the appropriate statistical tests, (SPSS) version 23. Results: The results of the current study demonstrated statistical significant improvements regarding quality of life as (79.2% compared to 86.7%), level of menstrual knowledge scores as (47.36% compared to 94.73%), and self-hygienic care practices score as (94.9% compared to 28.2%), p<0.00. Conclusion: The present study concluded that statistically significant improvements observed regarding the Saudi adolescent girl’s menstrual knowledge, self-hygienic care practices and quality of life after receiving the well prepared, planned and implementation of menstrual health education program.