Study of Knowledge Attitude and Perceptions of Adolescent Girls of 16–18 Years Towards Reproductive Health in Urban and Rural Schools of South Kerala

Abstract

Objectives : To assess the reproductive health knowledge, attitude and perception of school going adolescent girls of 16-18 years in urban and rural areas of south Kerala. Method : Cross sectional random survey was conducted among 1059 adolescent girls of 16-18 years, from five urban and five rural schools in Thiruvananthapuram District of Kerala. Statistical analysis was done using mean, percentages and Chi-square test. Results : Mean reproductive health knowledge of urban adolescents was 18.75 with a standard deviation of 5.02 (55.1% of the total) and rural 17.08 with a standard deviation of 4.8 (50.2% of the total). Only 14.7% of urban and 8.9 % of rural adolescents interacted about the reproductive health issues to their teachers. 83% of the adolescent girls agreed for the need to include reproductive health topic in the school curriculum. The results of the study had shown that the basic knowledge and awareness of late adolescent girls towards reproductive health was not satisfactory both in urban and rural areas, but urban girls were far better than rural girls .This study has also identified the fact that students were not discussing about their reproductive health doubts to teachers.