The effects of education intervention on the knowledge of some reproductive health issues amongst secondary school students in Douala IV Municipality, Cameroon.

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the effects of education intervention on the knowledge of some reproductive health issues amongst secondary school students. It was longitudinal and interventional study carried out in two phases. Participants were adolescents and young adults randomly selected from secondary establishments using a Probability Proportional to Size sampling method. In phase 1, data were obtained by the use of questionnaire and analyzed using Epi-Info 6.04 and SPSS version 17.0. Education intervention was utilized in 3 randomly selected schools (experiment), but not in 3 others (control). Phase 2 carried out 6 months after the end of the first intervention consisted of collecting baseline data. There was a significant association between knowledge on unintended pregnancy and STIs mainly with type of establishment, class, age group, sex, religion (p<0.001 respectively) and being sexually active (p=0.016). There was a significant increase of awareness in the experimental schools (34.1% vs 76.5%, p<0.0001), but not in the control schools (34.5% vs 35.5%, p>0.10). Health education had a significant impact on the knowledge of participants. We recommend reproductive health education through the framework of school to be used as a national policy in African developing countries.